


Heavenly Dragon Emperor

by Drakefire



Category: Highschool DxD (Anime)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2020-04-05 04:40:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19041322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drakefire/pseuds/Drakefire
Summary: Divine Dividing. One of the 13 Longinus, a powerful Scared Gear with only one equal, Boosted Gear. Power to level cities, a power that puts its wielder beyond all mortals. The power to kill a god, in the hands of one who wants nothing to do with it. If James had his way, he would stay out of the chaos of the supernatural world forever. Shame one doesn't always get what they want.





	1. Chapter 1

Magic pooled together in the hands of a stone giant, twisting the desert sands at its feet. Small stones were pulled in, forming into a massive arrow, notched into an ever larger bow. A second later, it was released, streaking across the sands like an angry spirit. Soaring over the heads of it’s enemies, the payload found it’s mark. The spells holding the arrow together broke on impact, expelling the force outward. Stone punctured matted fur, flesh, and bone alike, scattering the rats arming their artillery piece.

 

One or two more shots, and they would break. Already, the crew had been cut down to around half. Routing them off would be simple, even if they returned, it wasn’t like there was much of their Warp Lightning Cannons left. Meanwhile, the catapult nearby fired into the single unit of Stormvermin, tearing into the armored unit without mercy. Already, the Skaven front was already beginning to buckle. Clanrats were ok, mostly due to the cheap price tag, but they couldn’t hold up to Tomb Guards.

 

“This crude simulation is a waste of time,” an all too familiar voice rang inside my head. I sighed, hitting the pause button before I got too distracted.

 

“I heard you the first time, Albion. And the fifty times after that.” I groaned, trying to keep myself from speaking aloud. “I’ve got my homework done, I’ve already done both my physical and magical training in tonight. I’m pretty sure I’m close to making a breakthrough with that aggression issue,” Honestly, I have no idea what his issue is at this point. Until my family moved to Japan, or more specifically, Kuoh, he was perfectly willing to go through the motions of my daily life. Be the best student I could be, keep myself in good shape, and practicing spells, avoiding being detected by the supernatural community.

 

Yeah, that was kind of important. See, what knowledge I did have came from Albion, and personally, I wanted no part in all that mess. Gods, monsters, angels, devils, any and all of it, I wanted none of it in my life if I could help it. I’d much rather grow old rather living my life than run a high risk of cutting it off early.

 

“Ddraig is here,” Albion spoke, as I resisted the urge to smash my face into the desk before me. Oh, I was more than aware of Albion’s rival, the Crimson Dragon Emperor. He had informed me more than once that if the wielder of Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing were to meet, they would fight. Again, something I’d personally care to avoid.

 

“One, Albion, I have no interest in punching whoever is host to your rival in the face for you, and second, who? I have no interest in ruining any of my wards looking for this guy anyway. You know that I don’t want to get involved in this.”

 

“Understandable, but it is fate. Ddraig has yet to awaken, which give you an upper hand.”

 

“What do you mean, has yet to awaken? Don’t you want a fair fight? And besides, anyone with a Sacred Gear would have already awakened at this age,” ok, maybe that wasn’t entirely true, seeing as I only had a sample size of my sister and myself. I could almost feel Albion’s pride take a hit from my remark.

 

“I know not their identity, only that they are present,” Albion’s displeasure was easily felt, either due to my reluctance or his inability to find his rival. “His presence is faint. I nearly mistook what I was sensing to be that boy in the Student Council at first.”

 

Wow, Ddraig must have been buried deep if even his rival couldn’t find him. Still, a dragon type Sacred Gear was nothing to scoff at. So long as it couldn’t sniff me out, things were perfectly fine. Seeing as no alarm had yet been raised about me had been raised yet, it was safe to assume I was in the clear.

 

Albion seemed to withdraw for the time being, and I hunkered back down into my seat. Now, where was I? Oh, right, I was just about to win this engagement, likely crippling the Skaven force that had been advancing towards my cities. This army was the largest they had, and stopping them would be a decisive blow in my favor.

 

I was just about to unpause the game when a rune formed next to my head, flashing bright red. My eyes widened, gazing at the floating mandal in shock. That was not good news, not good news at all.

 

“Mom, whatever you do, don’t open the front door!”

 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

The fallen angel was in no certain means sutile. Abducting someone from their home in the middle of the night in the guise of ‘helping’ them was a blatant lie. I had only one reason to go along with it. There was no way I was starting a fight with a fallen angel of unknown strength so close to a residential area, let alone my own family. The supernatural world needed to remain hidden.

 

This would make for a weird news story. I could already see headlines now. “High School Boy beats up Blonde Middle Schooler”. For all my wanting to avoid this, I suppose it was inevitable. Power attracts trouble, and there few things mightier than a dragon. Yeah, I wanted nothing more than to never get involved with the supernatural, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t bothered being prepared. Hope for the best and prepare for worst, all that good stuff.

 

“I think this is good enough,” I stated, taking note of my surroundings. Honestly, the park was the best place to have a fight like this. Replacing dirt and trees was nowhere near as difficult as putting down new pavement, and no one was going here at this time of night.

 

“What are you talking about?” my sudden bout of defiance seemed to have taken her by surprise. I paid her no mind, my eyes flickering behind me. That tree was about two meters behind me, and the fallen was behind me by a half meter, her pink spear in hand.

 

Divine Dividing was easily, in my opinion, one of the strongest Scared Gears. Simply being able to divide the strength of anyone, every ten seconds, and add to its wielders power was something to good to ignore, even without Balance Breaker. Anything more than I could handle would be expelled through the wings, simply allowing me to drain more and more power, even if I couldn’t normally take it.

 

Half Dimension took this a step further, allowing me to divide the size anything within a radius, organic or inorganic. And yeah, these were all great abilities, and time spend developing them was well spent, but there had to be more. For one who could divide anything, what I had seemed limited. So, I did what I do best. Experiment with things that should be better left alone. I learned two things that day. The first was that trips to the ER were expensive. A second was that one could divide their place in space, so long as there was a reference point to divide from. Like, say, the tree just behind the person who’s pointing a spear at your back?

 

“Divide,” I intoned, and one second later, I was directly behind the fallen angel. My fist connected with the back of her skull, sending her tumbling forward, landing in a heap. Mandal’s had already begun to form in my hand, building up magic swiftly. Despite the blow that destroyed her pigtails and hair ribbon, she had recovered faster than I would have cared for.

 

A pink spear flew from her right, an underhand throw as her black wings unfolded from her back, allowing her to take to sky. An impressive maneuver, without a doubt, but a futile one. Lightning arced forth from the mandal in my hand, smashing it’s way through the spear like it was made of paper, connecting with the ground the fallen had been only moments beforehand.

 

The second remained in my right hand, having just finished charging. Unlike the lightning bolt, this spell was something I forged myself. A snap of my fingers and lightning roared to life, crackling over my hand like a wave. Brilliant blue, it held its shape, that of a massive javelin. A spell made to break the scales of a dragon. Several degrees overkill, yes, but it wasn’t wasn’t the strongest spell I’d whipped up.

 

“So the weakling has some fight in him after all!” it was a taunt and a clear one. An attempt to insult my pride and strength.

 

“If I’m the weak one, why are you staying up there?” I returned, wanting to activate Divine Dividing and take to the sky. But that was a terrible idea. As much as I liked to fly, those wings had been on her back the moment she was born, or whatever was done to make new angels. I had no hope of matching that type of experience, and even if I could, flying was going to draw too much attention.

 

She didn’t take the bait. So at the very least, I was concerning enough to make sure she remained in place. And I wasn’t moving, no matter how much taunting or jeering came my way.

 

“So, we’re at a stalemate, then,” I couldn’t tell whether this was a good or a bad thing. Sure, the lightning spear wouldn’t last forever, but I’d already used a much fast spell to destroy her own spears. Even if it faded, I could protect myself. But that was for now. Sure, I did a good enough job of keeping myself hidden from the world, so she thought she could handle this alone. But now it was clear I was stronger than she had anticipated.

 

I quickly ran through my options. Balance Breaker was there if I really needed it, but such an action would paint this town on the supernatural map more than it already was. Simply fighting it out was possible, but too risky.

 

“Or you could use that spell,” Albion’s voice entered my mind, and I didn’t need more than a second to figure out what he was talking about. My sister called it overkill, unnecessary, and impractical.

 

She was correct on all counts. It took too long to cast, ate too far into my magical reserves, and was a calling card that simply screamed ‘Powerful Mage Here!’. Then there was the largest downside of all, being caught in the blast myself. If I were to ever consider that spell in combat, I would need to iron out that bug first.

 

“Absolutely not!” I returned. “Too many reasons not to, and all of them are good. I’d much rather not fry myself if I can help it.”

 

“It would deal with her, even from here,” Albion responded. He wasn’t wrong by any means.

 

“And everything else in the park. I’m not desperate enough to electrocute myself, at any rate.”

 

“Are you done talking to your imaginary friend down there?” My brow furrowed in frustration. I was still working on fixing that bad habit. Talking to myself was something I just simply did from time to time, but Albion’s telepathy made it so I actually could be talking to someone. It was a childish insult, but it still touched a nerve.

 

“I know you look like a child but isn’t acting like one a bit much,” I shouted back, doing my best to hide my smirk.

 

It seemed to do the trick, too. I didn’t hear what she said, or if she had said anything at all, but the pink spear was descending from above. I threw mine upwards, arcing from my hand like an actual bolt of lightning. It didn’t stop, it didn’t slow, not even as it barreled through the spear of light. Lightning screamed into the night sky, thunder let loose its wrath, and the fallen was no more.

 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

“I told you he would win,” the girl seemed smug, looking at her parents as they shook their heads. At least this served an actual purpose, and could actually be explained naturally. Lightning could strike, without a storm. It just happened to be extremely rare, that’s all.

 

The three watched in silence as the thunder died, waiting for the fourth to return home.

 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

“It seems like Mittelt lost. What a pity.”

 

“If she lost to someone who hadn’t even awakened their Sacred Gear, then she didn’t deserve to be here in the first place.”

 

“He said divide. Unlike the one Raynare killed, his Sacred Gear is active. Divine Dividing, from the sound of it.”

 

“Azazel said that both of them could be a danger if their Sacred Gear’s awakened. You mean to tell me that it’s been active this whole time, and Azazel didn’t even know? That shouldn’t be possible.”

 

“It is possible. All those wards make it seem like he’s normal, but he’s aware. He might just want to be left alone.”

 

“That was not a display of someone wanting to be left alone. That was a show of force.”

 

“You are both correct. It is a message. ‘Cross me again, and you will suffer the same’.”

 

“What is our next move then, Raynare?”

 

“He’s proven that he isn’t a danger, as per Azazel’s orders. Leave him be. If he wishes to be left alone, he shall. But if he comes after us, kill him.”

 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

To think the Fallen Angels would have been bold enough to strike at two in the same day. Issei was expected, though there was little that could actually be done about the matter. His reincarnation was successful, a small blessing given what had happened.

 

Baker James was a second year Transfer student from America to Kuoh Academy. He wasn’t the most impressive student, with only above average grades for the most part, with Math, English, and Science being the exceptions, while Japanese was below average. His younger sister also attended the academy, one Baker Lily, if Rias remembered correctly. Much better all around than her older sibling academically, except in the areas where her brother excelled, she was nearly at the top of her class. She was also a member of the archery club, unlike her sibling, who participated in none.

 

Their father worked under hers, indirectly, of course, and their mother worked at a local hospital. And none of them were magical. Or, that’s what she had thought. What her familiar had shown her was forcing Rias to change that assumption. James was a magician, a strong enough one to fight a Fallen Angel and win. But there was more to it than that. He was talking to something. A familiar was a possibility, but that didn’t seem likely.

 

There was no reason for a Fallen Angel to accost a magician away in the middle of the night, but a Sacred Gear user? They’d already attacked Issei, who she was certain had Boosted Gear. Did that mean another Longinus user had been hiding under their noses?

 

She would need to inform Sona of this development. Rias redirected one of her familiars to keep an eye on matters. While it was unlikely anyone would make a move after a display like that, it didn’t hurt to be prepared.

 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

Kuoh Academy was an interesting place, a small little hive of perversion. Well, not in the traditional sense, most of the time. Sure, the Perverted Trio was always a right pain in the ass for everyone, most of the male population was under the sway of good old fashion hormones. Seeing Kuoh used to be an all female school, and it didn’t take a genius why so many guys wanted to be here.

 

Still, the gender disparity remained a bit wide, which is why I was able to transfer into the school so easily. My sister had less of an issue, better grades and all. A model student from America, what could possibly go wrong? Actually, surprisingly little. Something I was thankful for. Ok, I may have had more to do with it then I was willing to let my sister know about, but there were good reasons for that.

 

Still, the day had gone by smoothly enough, despite my sleepiness. Last night had left me a bit shaken, and more than a few degrees paranoid. Even a gust of went was enough to send me into high alert. It was safe to say I was an utter wreck, and it showed. Still, I was better off than Issei.

 

The brown haired pervert looked like he was even worse shape than I was. He was sluggish, with circles under his eyes like he didn’t get any sleep. I didn’t have much care for him or his two friends, personally, and most of the school didn’t either. But him being this far from his usual antics was a different type of concerning. And then there was English class, where things got several levels of just plain weird.

 

He spoke perfect English as if he had spoken it since the day he was born! Nobody found it suspicious, either. The thing was, I wasn’t even sure he had noticed what he did in the first place. Somehow, Issei had learned to speak perfect English. Out of all the species of supernatural creatures I knew of, only one had a power like that. Devils. It made sense. His sudden perfect understanding of English, too the fact he seemed sluggish under the sun’s rays.

 

But two big problems came from that line of though. First was that I was fairly certain a few devils were at this school already, and I didn’t notice their langue power nor did they react this venhimically to sunlight. Then there was the simple fact humans just didn’t turn into devils. Devils were devils, humans were humans, and that was that.

 

More honestly, I personally thought that his lack of sleep was because that girl who came out of nowhere and attached himself to his hip finally realized how much of prev he was, and left him. Well, until I learned that everyone besides Issei had no memory of the girl. Well, I had yet to ask my sister, with us being in different years, but she should also remember.

 

There was no understating the problem something like that possed. Why would I remember, and why would he, but everyone else forget? Magic was at play here, some pretty powerful magic at that. And I couldn’t imagine it being benign, or even petty. Erasing memories pertaining to a single person, only leaving Issei to remember under normal circumstances. For a school this large, that would be no small task.

 

No, something was a work here. But what? It didn’t take much to see Issei was about as mundane as mundane got, even with his perversion and talk of harems. Personally, I wasn’t going to approach him on the matter unless pushed. Mostly because I could simply be reading too far into the situation as things stood, and if I was, then I could be putting him in danger.

 

Did I like Issei? Not in the slightest. But did I want him dead? No. And if I was wrong, trying to introduce him to the supernatural, that’s what I’d end up with. Once the veil was lifted, it couldn’t be closed. And I would not be responsible for introducing someone who had no magical abilities, and no Sacred Gear to that type of life.

 

Honestly, I was too tired to be even considering that as an option in the first place. I needed to know more, but a day to collect my thoughts wouldn’t exactly kill me. And I should actually start eating before I start looking like the weird American student. Well, I was the weird American student, but that's beside the point.

 

I just hoped today didn’t have any further interference from the supernatural. I’d had enough for a week.

 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

It wasn’t meant to be. True, the rest of the day was pretty much mundane, but that changed not horribly long after class let out. I would have already walked home by then, but both my sister and I agreed that it would be best if we stuck together.

 

That was until Saji showed up, telling me a certain Student Council President wished to speak with me. Oh, if that didn’t set off warning bells. Unless she was going to talk about the bags under my eyes, which maybe, maybe I could play this off as a bad night of sleep.

 

Sona was stern, with no patience for troublemakers. And she took her job extremely seriously. There was a reason I had been surprised that Prevert Trio was even here, rather than expelled. Even more of one that I tried to avoid her when I could. I honestly suspected the girl wasn’t human, as good as she was at her job. Something just rubbed me the wrong way entirely. The same could be said for most of the student council, but Sona was easily the one who unnerved me the most.

 

Then there was my sister’s, ‘it’s important, and you should go,’ text pretty much a few seconds after he left. Her Sacred Gear, no doubt, and that’s what concerned me. In its most basic state, it allowed her to see three seconds into the future. Once a day, she could peer further into the future, usually only an hour or two in advance. Even then, she could only get so much, and some was left to interpretation.

 

But, it wasn’t like I didn’t have a choice. I’d just have to find a way to roll with the punches.

 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

“You wished to speak with me Kaichou?” I barely got the final word out of my mouth, but thankfully, I didn’t butcher it. Like the five other times, I’d tried. She slightly nodded, or at the very least tipped her head, probably because I didn’t massacre her title again.

 

“I’ll get straight to the point,” her voice was stern, akin to a parent about to scold their child. A tone I was more than familiar with. “How much do you know about devils?”

 

It wasn’t the question I was expecting, but my body froze all the same. One way or another, I’d have to tip my hand. This wouldn’t be a question asked lightly. They would need a reason to suspect.

 

“Albion, I’m about to do something reckless.”

 

“I would advise against engaging in combat. However, if you seek to tip your hand, try to avoid tipping all of it.”

 

“Like with everything else most modern people consider a myth, a very real thing. Along with both type of angels,” my face was straight, and my tone was serious. Fallen was ruled out by default. Unless what happened last night was someone going against orders, then they would have already made an attack. And angels wouldn’t be playing schoolhouse. Heaven had to be much too busy to allow that.

 

That left devils. The entire student council was made up of devils. If there was a joke to be had here, I wasn’t finding it funny.

 

“Much less than I expect then,” I frowned, still unable to read Sona’s expression. I knew Albion’s information was dated, but how far off could he be? It took him and Driagg fighting to cause a temporary ceasefire. And that was only long enough to lead to the creation of Divine Dividing and Boosting Gear.

 

“Though despite that, you think we are devils.”

 

Note to self. Never play a game that requires a poker face with her. She read me like a freaking book. She wasn’t denying it either. Out of all the times I’ve hated being wrong, this was swiftly taking the cake.

 

“Process of elimination,” I shrugged, trying to play myself off as less concerned than I was, and likely failing horribly. “Angel’s wouldn’t have time for something like this, and Fallen would have already attacked me.”

 

It was only after I finished speaking that I realized I may have played a bit too much of my hand. My concern only grew when Sona had not show any surprise by this revelation. I was fairly certain I covered my tracks and everything!

 

“So a Fallen Angel did attack you last night,” it was a statement, not a question that needed to be confirmed. “And you were not the only one. Issei Hyoudou was as well.”

 

The world came to a grinding halt.

 

“What?” I squeaked out, switching back to English on pure instinct. Him, of all people! Forget why they would target him, how the hell was he still alive! I shook my head, trying to focus myself before my mind went too far off the rails.

 

“It was that girl who attached herself to him, wasn’t it,” I asked once I finally focused myself. Sona nodded, causing me to frown. I wasn’t going to like asking this question, but I need to know.

 

“How is he still alive?” Immediately, the room chilled several degrees, and Sona had a slightly visible frown. A pawn piece came from her pocket, a blue colored crystal. Fancy, but I failed to see the point she trying to make.

 

“This is an evil piece. It allows High Class Devils to reincarnate humans and other species into devils, including those who recently died,” my throat felt like it dropped into my stomach. Oh dear god, Issei had died. Died, and been reborn.

 

I felt sick to my stomach. The only thing stopping me from storming out in disgust was the lingering look of regret on Sona’s face. Would Issei believe anyone if we told him his new girlfriend was out to kill him? This is what the boy had dreamed for, and he wouldn’t believe it, without her buttering him up.

 

“He was reincarnated into Rias Gremory’s peerage,” Sona continued to act as if she were reading my mind. I knew of the red head, of course, most of the male population was infatuated with her, but to think she was also a devil. Kouh was even more of a hotbed for the supernatural, wasn’t it?

 

“She suspects he has Boosted Gear as well, which explains the attack.”

 

Once again, my mind went blank.

 

I didn’t even get out a ‘what’, just a brain dead ‘uh’. That made so much sense, but at the same time, it made no sense. Meanwhile, Albion seemed to be howling with laughter, as much as a dragon could. If it wasn’t for the fact he didn’t have a physical body, there’d be a raging earthquake. I kept hearing ‘weakest’ and ‘most pitiful’, and even ‘so easy to punch in the face’.

 

“No, Albion, I’m not punching Issei in the face for you,” I slumped over, completely and utterly drained. You know what, I was done. Today, you and I are completely through. Until I felt stares coming from all over the room.

 

“I said that out loud, didn’t I?” I only needed to glance around the room to see the nodding heads.

 

Ok, now we are officially done here.


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m sorry! If I had known!” my sister was on the verge of tears. I had thrown up a vail the moment she was out of archery practice, so we could talk in peace. It wasn’t good but was enough to prevent most from hearing what we are talking about, though anyone with even more than a touch of magic would be able to see through it. 

“If you had known, it wouldn’t have changed much. I would have had to go anyway because if I didn’t, it would cause them to be suspicious,” I sighed, rubbing my forehead. “And Sona is smart. She probably expected some type of Sacred Gear, and my reaction to Issei’s suspected own likely just gave everything away anyway.” Really, at this point, I was trying to calm her down. As far as she was concerned, she had just sent me into a trap with open arms. 

But I didn’t blame her. Nobody sane would. She didn’t know the Student Council is comprised of devils, and even if she did, what good would it have done? Nothing, that’s what! The only reason the gig was up was that of one fallen angel, and why would she look for something like that! We’d been off the radar all our lives, and there was no reason to expect any change. Even if there was, her Scared Gear didn’t allow her to see far into the future in the first place, even when fully activated.

“Still,” she rubbed her green eyes, “those pieces. You could have been turned into a devil.” 

“Trying to turn someone by force is the last way to earn any loyalty, and even then, I don’t think she has enough pieces remaining to bind me,” I looked down, meeting her eyes, keeping my voice calm. Immediately after and while waiting for Lily’s practice to finish, I wracked my sleep addled brain for anything I could remember about chess. 

Not much, honestly, beyond things like knight movement, pawn promotion, and castling had pretty much fallen away, seeing as the last time I had played, I had been quite young. But I also recalled the point system, though I couldn’t remember everything about it. Still, each piece was worth something, and I doubted chess pieces were chosen just simply because they looked cool. 

Either the entire Student Council was reincarnated under her, or at the very least most of them, and she had shown me one pawn. So at least, she had one pawn left. Honestly, there were more pieces left based on how many were in the student council. Other combinations included eight to six pawns, provided Saji was worth one, which was doubtful, and any combination of knights, rooks, and bishops. The queen piece was taken by Tsubaki, Sona’s second and Vice President. 

“She didn’t bother asking, which is part of the reason why I think that in the first place,” honestly, that was my biggest. Devil’s are beings of desire. Even with me very, very clearly saying I would reject, she would have asked if it was within her power. Or Sona just had good self-control. Rias was likely in the same boat if her theory about Issei was true.

Thankfully, my words had their intended effect. She calmed down, no longer wiping the tears from her eyes. Then, the pout came.

“I suppose I shouldn’t try getting close to Gremory-sama, Himejima-sama, and Kiba-sama anymore,” oh god, that pout. Even normally, it was a terrifying thing. More so than her idolizing of the two great ladies, as they were called. 

I sighed, relenting under the pressure. They knew I had a Sacred Gear, but they didn’t know about hers. So long as they remained unaware, I didn’t see an issue with her trying to get closer to any of her three crushes. But I doubted any of them were interested. Kiba could have easily acquired the harem that Issei coveted, while Rias and Akeno showed no interest in anyone, despite their many admirers, some of which were in my sister's boat.

I felt bad for her. She going to be shot down. Three times, by three different people. She was going to get hurt, and for once, there was nothing I could do. Yeah, that sucked, but love could bite people in the ass like that. 

“If we hurry, we can get home before mom gets up,” she giggled, clearly happy that I agreed. Not like I could stop her trying to get close to them anyway. At least I’d be aware of how far into trouble she was getting, instead of her doing it behind everyone’s back. 

“Still asleep? I’ll race you,” I grinned, watching her face light up at the offer. She took off like a rocket, blowing past my vail in a whirlwind of speed. I chuckled, taking off after her, happy that she was enjoying herself.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

I managed to win, if only barely, despite my sister’s cheating. Seeing three seconds into the future made certain things pretty easy. There was a reason you never took a bet with her, especially if that bet was spur the moment. There was an even greater one why we never let her attempt to gamble with anything. With enough training, she would be a poker Goddess with just her Scared Gear alone. 

It was our footfalls up the front steps were what caused our mother to finally stir from her slumber. Her alarm clock had failed to wake her up, only leaving an hour to prepare herself for the night shift at Kouh’s children's hospital. 

Mercifully, there was pancake batter in the fridge, allowing me to quickly fix up dinner. Mom already had enough things to do without worry about putting food in our mouths. She was out the door before dad came home, but only by a few minutes. My news would have to wait until tomorrow when everyone would be able to just sit down. I didn’t want to repeat myself, especially with everything going on. 

Yeah, that was a conversation I was going to enjoy having. Hey dad, your boss is possibly a devil. Yes, I do mean literally, like one from the bible. He was going to freak out over this whole situation. Of course, I was at that point internally. Longinus class Scared Gears weren’t something a person would just leave around. Each of the three factions coveted such powerful Scared Gears, each in different ways, one of which I found out only today. 

But two of the three were aware of me wielding Divine Dividing, and if that was the case, there could be more. The Fallen had tried to kill me, burning that bridge. I hoped the devils would just let me be and live my life in peace, but that wasn’t going to happen. Longinus were weapons, powerful ones. Nobody would be crazy enough to leave me alone after such information comes to light. Even without any training, one could easily be a powerful asset. 

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. That was what I lived by and intended to do so. And the worst had all but happened now. I had the eyes of the supernatural community on me now. This was, ironically, what I’d trained for. If the supernatural looked my way, if they became aware of Divine Dividing, I’d have something more than just potential. I didn’t go overboard, but I experimented with magic fairly regularly, and I certainly could do well in a few of the physically active clubs. I could defend myself until I found a group that could help keep my family safe, and ward off whatever enemies I’ve made during that time. 

Meanwhile, the very same faction that was interested in me also had my supposed rival. History was riff with clashes between the two, each pretty much being brutal, potentially city-destroying affairs. 

So much fun. Not! This type of complexity was what I wanted to avoid! I wanted to study dinosaurs, not get involved in this crazy life!

I took a deep breath, calming myself down. Freaking out wasn’t going to help, and it wasn’t going to change anything. 

“Do you want me to use a fortune?”

“Eh?” I questioned, apparently not noticing that my sister was still in the room. It took a few seconds for her question to click in my mind. 

I frowned. Her making such an offer was never a good thing, seeing how much she hated using it. While my parents were no closer to tracking down exactly what her Sacred Gear was, it had one major ability. Once a day, she could enter a state that she could answer a single question. This question would have to be about the future, and she never remembered the answer given. And it only saw a single hour into the future. 

There were a few other downsides. Lightheadedness that she usually needed to sleep off, general headaches and once a nosebleed, but that was one time only, and the answer she gave was really cryptic. Sounded like something straight out of a fantasy game. 

“Why?” This was the first time she’d offered up one for free in quite a while. It couldn’t be on a whim, and I hoped she didn’t have any feelings of guilt about the attack. How much could have been done, even with an hour’s notice? Sure, we could have been prepared, but that wouldn’t have changed the outcome. 

“You said Issei had been attacked, right?” I nodded. I had told her about that, and Rias’s suspicion that he held Boosted Gear. “What’s stopping them from attacking him again? He’s not as strong as you are, and he doesn’t know yet.” 

“He’s apart of Rais’s peerage now. I’d imagine that would give him some form of protection,” I offered, already guessing where things were going. That was a question I had wondered about myself. I’d think becoming a devil and a member of a peerage would kind of mark him somehow. Like attacking him would be an attack on devil kind, something along those lines. Sona did say there was an informal truce in effect, so Issei should be safe.

Sona did say she’d talk about what could be done about me though, further reinforcing my idea that they didn’t have the pieces to turn me. 

“But Issei doesn’t know that yet. He could get hurt or killed again. I don’t want that.” Tears had begun to cling to her eyes again. I pulled Lily into a hug, smiling gently. Such a heart of gold she had. I patted her head, fingers touching her brown hair, calming her down. 

“I can do something that might save him. So, I have to at least try, right? Even if he is a pervert.” she smiled up at me, rubbing the last of the tears from her face, and I couldn’t help but beam back. 

I nodded, allowing her to collect herself. Soon, her body slumped over, eyes going white as if she had become blind. Her head moved as if controlled by another, slow and robotic. 

“What is the question that you desire to have answered?” its voice rasped, like something that had been left without water for too long in the desert. 

“Will the one known as Issei Hyoudou be attacked by any fallen angels?” I questioned, making sure my wording was precisely what I wanted it to be. Just like I’d imagine asking oracles to be like, wording needed to exact. Otherwise, you didn’t get the answer you needed. Like if I said a, instead of any. A would imply one, so the answer could be no, but he could be attacked by more than one fallen angel.

“The prison of the Red Dragon Emperor will not be attacked by those of fallen light,” the voice rasped. 

“So, he is the one,” I could feel Albion’s ill contained glee. Well, at least he wasn’t going to be attacked in the next hour. And Rias’s theory was confirmed too, but I wasn’t going to explain how I knew that to her. I took a quick look at the clock

“Still not fighting him for you,” I commented, just to reinforce where I stood on the matter. He merely chuckled at that, though I had little time to worry about it. My sister shook her head, hair nearly smacking me in the face. 

“He’s good,” I didn’t even need to wait for her to ask. A sigh of relief left her mouth as she shook her head again. 

“Water,” her voice was dry and crackly, as I quickly filled her one of the reusable bottles from the water pitcher in the fridge. Everything put into the bottle vanished in a matter of seconds, Lily being completely unrestrained in her rush. A pleased sound exited her throat, and I relaxed. 

“Feeling better?” even I couldn’t hide my concern for my younger sister. 

“Yeah, I’m good,” she responded, finally releasing her hair from its ponytail, her frame losing its tension. “I’m more worried about you right now though. Did you get any sleep at all last night?”

Her eyes bore into mine. The bags under my eyes made it obvious enough, so lying would be useless. My hair had likely lost whatever effect taking a comb to it in the morning had, so I didn’t need to look in a mirror to tell I probably looked quite haggard. 

“No, I didn’t,” I sighed, looking down. “I’m going to hit the hay early tonight, so please don’t give me that look.” I heard her feet shift, telling me yes, she was trying to give me one of those looks.

“You don’t have to worry about this alone you know,” she frowned somewhat. “You did make that bow for me after all.” I nodded, remembering the spell I had made for her as her birthday gift last year. I had originally planned to base it off a spell in Skyrim, the conjured bow. Nothing I did could actually make it work though. Sure, the bow could be summoned, but it would slip through one’s fingers the moment the spell was released. 

Ultimately, I was forced to apply the same principles behind my lightning spear, effectively making a lightning bow and arrows. She adored it, and it proved to simpler than enchanting a bow, an art I still had trouble with. While it didn’t have as much power, it was more than enough to punch holes through boulders. Accuracy was really the major upside, though most of that was my sister’s own training. 

“I know. I just don’t want you to get hurt,” I said. If she got hurt, especially if it was something that I could have prevented, I had no idea what I’d do. 

“I know. I don’t want you to get hurt either,” the same words echoed back to me. I shook my head. My own argument used against me. It was only natural, I suppose. I wanted them to stay safe, but they also wanted me to be safe. 

I pulled her into a hug, a silent I love you. She returned the gesture whole heartily, applying enough force to my spine for me to feel a light pop. 

“I love you too, Oni-chan,” I nearly recoiled away out of surprise. When she said it like that, it sounded creepy. Brother was perfectly fine, thank you very much. 

“Please don’t call me that,” I declared, as she howled with laughter at my reaction. My head shook at her antics. I suppose it was time to change the subject. Or at least, start finishing up my homework. 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Over the next few days, my life felt like it regained some sense of normalcy. Even my working negotiations with the two devils practically had an air of mundane about it. Ok, calling them negotiations was overselling things. Most of their time was spent simply filling in the blanks in my knowledge before they were actually willing to talk out the terms of our arrangement. 

It was nice of Rias and Sona to do that. While I had no doubt the information was biased, I was getting more knowledge about the supernatural than I ever had before. The gesture of allowing me to make a somewhat informed decision was appreciated, and points in their favor. Ironically, making a deal with two devil's didn’t seem like a terrible idea. 

For starters, it wasn’t going to cost my soul. If anything, it was closer to a business agreement. I scratched their backs by helping them out with minor things, not exactly devil contracts in the like, but more akin to training Issei, if nothing else. Or tracking down stray devil's if they felt it wouldn’t be extremely risky to my life. 

They said they’d explain what a stray devil was in due time. Personally, I didn’t like the sound of that, but they shared honesty with me thus far. Plus, training Issei was something I could do, once Rais finally got around to telling him that he was a devil. I really couldn’t understand why she hadn’t already told him. Issei was getting more sluggish and melancholy by the day. 

Well, it wasn’t melancholy too, oh, the more than a dozen or so people who actually knew, but it was still painful to watch. Even his perverted friends had noticed Issei’s lack of everything. I wasn’t entirely sure why the school let them bring porn into the building and show it around in front of him, but at least they were trying to cheer him up. It seemed to work for a time. 

Then he brought up his girlfriend that nobody remembered. Yuuma was the name she operated under when trying to kill Issei. While it didn’t matter, seeing it was as if she never existed anyway, but knowledge was power. A direct attack on my own life failed, so the next attempt one might try a more subtle approach. 

Still, my sister remained willing to monitor his activities through her Sacred Gear. Thus far, everything had been quiet. Maybe they thought they’d succeeded in whatever mission they had and vacate the area before either peerage caught them. Sure, I might have been paranoid at that point, but I wasn’t leaving things to chance. I’d thrown up a few more wards on the house, with Lily providing a few spells of her own. 

It was a bit much, but there was no kill like overkill. Well, maybe there was, but I hadn’t reached that point yet. 

“So, in exchange for keeping your family safe, you will aid us in eliminating stray devils and other missions that might require a Longinus,” Sona stated, looking over the terms of our contract. “Such an arrangement seems to be in our favor. Heavily so.” 

“Well, outside of protection for my family, I don’t really want much,” I resisted the urge to shrug off her comment. “Plus helping Issei improve with his Boosted Gear will help me get stronger too.”

“Impressive. Improving the strength of your enemy as a means to challenge yourself.” Albion’s voice rang in my mind. “A risky but potentially fruitful maneuver.” 

“Like it or not, I’m involved now,” I shot back internally, trying to keep my face straight. “Getting stronger by default kind of needs to be upped a few notches on the priority list.” 

“This comes from the one who once was content spending five years developing balance breaker,” Albion teased, though mercifully remained silent after that. I wasn’t going to be able to focus on two different conversations at once, even if one was internal. 

“Regardless, I’m surprised you didn’t ask for access to any magic tomes. Normally a magician would make such a request,” Sona looked at me dead in the eye as if she was trying to read my mind. 

“I usually make my own spells with what little I’ve had available to me. I really don’t see any need to change that,” I kept her gaze, unable to ignore the strange glint in her eye. Even Rais’s eyes seemed to widen slightly in surprise. Meanwhile, Sona’s eyes narrowed, the look she gave me nearly made me want to run away in fear. I thought I heard her mutter ‘I see’, but I chalked it up to my imagination. 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The talk went better than even I expected. Everything had been sorted out, and somehow, I ended up with a small beginners spellbook. As Sona so nicely put it, a gift for one advanced in one particular type of spell, but horribly behind everywhere else. 

At the very least, it would something I could go over and actually begin practicing within short order. My exposure to magic was admittedly, extremely limited to what my parents could dig up. What I did get was few and far between. Lightning based elemental spells were mostly what I got, but I couldn’t complain. 

They had also exchanged numbers with me. That way, I could contact them if I ran into trouble, or contact me for missions and the like. Normally, they had the ability to observe any piece in their peerage, but seeing how I wasn’t going to be, phones were the best workaround. 

I let out a yawn as I stepped through the front door. Only two days till the weekend, and then maybe I could enjoy this book after work and homework were out of the way. Taking it down to my little lab and just practicing would certainly be quite fun. 

“Are we going to try again?” Well, it looked like someone had no patience today. She was beginning to get more irritable ever since we started using her Scared Gear more and more. I had held on to some type of hope that this would help her build up an immunity of sorts, allowing it to become stronger after so many years of neglect. 

I was wishing on a star, it seemed. Still, hopefully, Rias would inform Issei soon, and this would come to an end. This was causing her no small amount of discomfort, but she was willing to continue anyway. Honestly, she was being stubborn at this point, her actually wanting to help aside. 

“Ok,” I nodded, as she positioned herself cross-legged on the couch. A meditative stance straight out of our martial arts days. 

“If Issei Hyoudou is attacked by any fallen angels, when and where would it be?” I’d improved the question a bit over the past few days. One could never be too specific when dealing with future questions and all that. 

“The prison of the Red Dragon Emperor will be stuck at the place of his first death when the sun has given way to the moon.”

Yeah, that was the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear. In every way imaginable. My eyes flickered toward the window. It was sunset. So there was some time between now and the hour her prediction had to come true. 

“Problem?” she rasped, concern growing on her face as she observed my panic. 

“Understatement of the century,” my frown only continued to grow on my face. “Issei will be attacked after the sun has fully set, and an exact location was given. Problem is, I have no idea where it is, and it isn’t a place I can look up on google.” 

Yeah, the place Issei had died the first time was pretty specific, but at the same time, neither of us knew where. Asking Rias was out of the question. There was no way I could be subtle enough to pull that one past her. Not without revealing her Scared Gear could I likely gain access to such knowledge. 

I tried to turn my mind back. Issei had been unable to keep his mouth shut during the entire time frame. He likely dropped a hint at some point or another. I frowned. The park. It made for a romantic enough place, for sure, and one could hide a body in the woods with magic on their side. 

“Park,” I stated, already making my way towards the door. I had plenty of ground to cover, but I had a starting point. 

“Give them hell,” I watched my sister smile at me. Oh, how appropriate that statement was. 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Dark had long since fallen, and yet I found no sign of Issei or any fallen angels lying in wait. I hadn’t run out of time, not yet, but I was getting close. Had something already happened, and I was too late to stop it? My ears pricked. Voices. I turned the corner.

Issei was looking up, towards the black winged angel that hung over him like a specter of death. Light had already begun to form in his hands. Time had just run out. 

But the fallen angel was taking his time, toying with his prey like a cat did a mouse. As he was about to throw his spear, he pushed upward with his wings, lightning arcing were his right arm been only moments before. 

“Stay behind me,” I snapped, positioning myself between the fallen angel and Issei. The black haired angel did not seem to be amused by my presence if his scowl was anything to go by. 

“Slayer of Mittelt, I suggest,” I didn’t let him finish, cutting him off with another bolt of lightning, this time casually aimed towards his face, though it was partially an attempt to cover my own confusion. Mittelt was probably the one who tried to kill me, but I was fairly certain I hadn’t killed her. Driven her off out of fear was my intention. 

“Back off,” I snarled, two matching sets of mandal’s appearing in my hands. “Or else your head will be joining hers on my mantel.” If he thought I had killed her, then I might as well play to it. 

“What makes you think you could accomplish such a task?” he asked, glaring down at us. His eyes were on my spells, and mine was on his spear. 

“How much stronger are you, really? I mean, she was pretty easy to deal with. Didn’t even need to use Balance Breaker, and she had the element of surprise,” that got his attention. His glare became a scowl. 

“So, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to stand down, and leave. You will not try to follow him home. And if you don’t, you’ll be dealing with me, and his master,” I threatened, narrowing my eyes. “And yes, I know exactly who it is.” He let out a sound that was likely that of annoyance. 

“Very well, human,” he returned my glare, before vanishing into the night sky. I waited a few moments to make sure he was truly gone before I turned around to check on Issei. The poor boy was slack-jawed, and if it could get any lower, it would touch the ground. He was stammering, not that I blamed him. I placed my hand on his shoulder, noticing how he almost recoiled away. 

“Look, I’ll explain everything I know tomorrow, after school. It’s been a long day for the both of us.”


	3. Chapter 3

Oh, heaven forbid Issei even listen to a word I said. I suppose I really, really shouldn’t be surprised, but I was hoping Risa would have explained the situation already. Was a whole day really that much of a wait?

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“Look, I need to talk to you about,”

“What did I say?”

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Poke. Poke. Poke.

“Issei, please stop.”

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“Why do want to explain later?”

“I swear, why can’t you accept my answer already?”

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“Ok, so how about during lunch?”

*Angry muttering in Engrish*

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Let it be said, that Issei was about as determined as he was perverted. Normally, my temper wouldn’t be getting the best of me, but Issei was about ready to drive me up a wall. He just kept asking! Part of me could understand, but that didn’t do much to calm me down. Hopefully, lunch would give me plenty of time to recharge. 

I hit my face against the table with no regard for subtlety, as I watched Issei head my direction. Thankfully, his perverted friends weren't with him. So much for my peaceful lunch. 

“Fine, you win,” I grumbled, hoping my displeasure was clear. “I’ll give you a Cliff Notes version.” 

“Cliff Notes?” Issei once again was speaking in perfect English, or at least I thought he was.   
“It’s,” I wanted to explain it, but “It’s irrelevant. Just give me a few seconds, alright?” I tapped the underside of the small lunch table, letting my weak vail spell do its work. Almost immediately, I could feel two sets of eyes on me. Saji was nearly on the other end of the lunchroom, talking to some of his peers, and Kiba, who had been swarmed by much of the female members of our class. I meet their gaze’s, hoping to convey at least some of the situation. Issei blinked, as if seeing something for the first time. 

“What was that?” his voice gave away his shock, and I sighed into the palm of my hand. I was so glad my spell also muffled noise. 

“Not all magic is flashy,” I got out between bites, trying to avoid piling the muffin into my mouth. “Often times, most of it isn’t.” 

“Magic? But, that’s impossible,” he stammered, still in denial. I let out a groan.

“I saved you last night from a creature ripped straight out of the Abrahamic faith, using lightning bolts. You really don’t have any right to say what's impossible and what isn’t,” I glared at him, somewhat annoyed. I would have been more surprised if he took me at face value, but there are only so many ways to explain what happened besides magic and being high.

“Look, you wanted to know, and right now, I don’t have much a choice but throw you into the deep end,” I tried my best from keeping my frustration from showing. 

“What does that even mean?” the brunette looked at me, completely confused. To that, I grinned slightly. 

“Wow, that translation thing is really bad at figures of speech,” I was still grinning. “You do realize we’ve been having this entire conversation in English, right?” 

“Eh?” Issei’s surprise as it finally seemed to register was priceless. His eyes bulged, like some type of anime. “How?”

“Magic,” I merely grinned enjoying this little moment. “Though it’s not mine. You’ve been speaking pretty good English for the past week.” I wasn’t going to be the one explaining he became a devil. Really, having a conversation of, hey, you got stabbed by your girlfriend and were only saved due by being turned into a devil, wasn’t one I wanted to have. 

“So, if that wasn’t a bad dream, does that mean Yuuma was one of those things too?” Issei looked actually depressed as he asked the question, eyes downcast, almost as if he was about to burst into tears at any moment. I blinked back in surprise, before wanting to smack myself. Of course, he was hurting! She approached him as the one thing he wanted more than anything and used that trust to stab him in the chest. 

I took in a deep breath, and let go of my simmering anger. That wouldn’t do anything to help. Part of me wanted to sugar coat it. Issei was in more pain than he was willing to let on, and no matter how much I disliked him, I didn’t want to carve even more gouges into his emotions and physic. But in the long run, it wouldn’t help either. Eventually, she was going to come back and finish what she started, and when that happened, lying to Issei would only make things worse.

“Yes,” I finally said. “Yuuma is a fallen angel, like the one from last night.” Issei’s shoulders sagged, seemingly sapped of strength. I placed a hand on his shoulder, pretty much watching his self-esteem crumble like sand. 

“Because she is afraid of you,” I did my best to make my voice unreadable. 

“Eh?” Issei looked up, eyes already stained with tears. 

“There is something we have in common,” I grinned, almost releasing my Scared Gear then and there. “We both have Scared Gears, artifacts given to us at birth. Mine is Divine Dividing, which allows me to divide someone’s power in half every ten seconds, and add that strength to my own. Your’s, I believe, is Boosted Gear, which allows you to double your power every ten seconds.”

“Both are Longinus class Scared Gears, having the potential to kill gods,” I continued, almost fervent, “Most of the supernatural world views them as threats to remove, or beings to gain allegiance with.” 

This time, it was Issie’s turn to have his jaw dropped to the floor. His mouth had gone completely slack-jawed, like a puppet without strings. Well, I did just tell him he had the potential of killing gods. My reaction at the time was the same. Well, except for more shouting. 

I still don’t think I made Issei feel better though. That I barely put a bandage on the wound and hoped it would be enough. A distraction, nothing more or less. 

Issei seemed to stare at his arm, seemingly lost in thought. 

“So why hasn’t it activated?” Issei’s question snapped me out of my own thoughts, and I felt my face fold into a frown. 

“I don’t know. I’ve had mine since I was young, and only have my experience to really go on,” I shook my head. “I might try and see if we can activate it tonight if something doesn’t come up unexpectedly.” Again, Issei’s eyes lit up, and I knew I succeeded in taking his mind off the fallen angel, at least for a bit. 

“Oh, yeah. You mentioned something about ‘my master’ last night. What is that about?” Issei had suddenly thrown me for a loop, and I internally swore. Damn it, I did mention that last night. 

 

“That’s not exactly a question I’m at liberty to answer,” my statement caused Issei to deflate visibly, like a balloon. “Look, all I can say is that it’s complicated for me to go over in the next oh, four minutes or so, and even if it wasn’t, it’s kind of something I don’t have the right to talk about anyway.” 

Thankfully, that explanation was accepted, so I didn’t have to spitball the whole, several members of our school. Yeah, they aren’t human, and you’re one of them and you didn’t know about it until just know. 

Yeah, he thinks finding out he has the potential to kill gods was jaw-dropping, I could only imagine what was to come. Issei, you have no idea how crazy the world you’ve stepped into is. 

Then again, did I really know what I was stepping into?

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Finally. The end of the day. Hopefully, I could find a way to get Issei’s Sacred Gear activated. There was quite a bit to do in that regard. I still hoped it wouldn’t take too long or, or. 

Why was there the sound of faint screaming in the hallway? It only seemed to get louder. I felt a minor pinprick on the back of my mind. It didn’t seem like a scream of panic or pain. No, it sounded, joyous? 

The door swung open, creating a clearer path for the noise to travel, and every girl in the room added their voices. I clapped my hands over my ears to block out as much noise as I could. It didn’t really work, but it gave me enough time to find the source of the shrieking. Kiba. Really shouldn’t be surprised. Kiba was easily the most popular guy in school, if only due to the large female population being head over heels in love with him. Didn’t know much about him personally, with him being in a different class. What little I did know came from my sister, things like that he didn’t have a girlfriend.

Strange, if one looked at the rest of the school population, who seemed to be here only so they had less competition in getting a girlfriend. Less so, from what I’ve seen of him. He seemed a bit more like me, interested in other things rather than romance. 

Though the look on Issei’s face showed his clear dislike of Kiba, and I had to hold back a chuckle. Knowing the brown-haired pervert, he was likely jealous of all the attention Kiba got. Despite that Issei’s lack of any luck was because Issei was a known peeper, and none besides his friend group really wanted to hang out with him. 

Which after today I would be probably considered a part of. Joy. Oh well, it’s not like I had much of a reputation at school anyway. 

“I came here by the order of Rias Gremory-senpai,” Kiba still had his trademark grin, and I had to resist muttering about how it was about damn time. Issei seemed to be shocked by the statement. Well, it wasn’t going to be every day that one was called on by one of the Great Buetities. A dream come true for Issei, no doubt. 

“Both of you, I would like you to follow me,” Kiba’s voice made my head turn. I nodded, realizing that Rias would like to know exactly what I had told Issei. Well, looks like I might be home a bit on the late side of things. I internally flicked my mental calendar, noting that everything except for a long-term assignment, but everything besides what had been assigned today was finished. 

“No!” one of the girl’s shouted, giving way to protests coming from every direction. The racket nearly made me bring my hands to my ears in an attempt to block out the shouting, but I knew it would do me little good. I’m pretty sure I heard someone call me a delinquent, while another talked about pairing of all things.

“Damn shippers,” I couldn’t stop myself from muttering under my breath. I passed between Issei’s two friends, still grumbling. Really? Bringing porn videos to school? Talk about disgusting.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“Really? You live in a world where every myth ever conceived by man is real, yet the existence of a fat man with a white beard wearing a red suit going around the world giving gifts to children is somehow outlandish?” I looked at Issei and Kabi like both of them had lost their minds. I didn’t want to deal with the awkward silence anymore, so I struck up a conversation. Issei wasn’t going to do it, and Kiba seemed much too polite to try and force him to talk. 

Thankfully for the two of them, I didn’t have any problem with completely ignoring Japan’s standard of politeness. Issei’s reaction to finding out that Santa was real was hysterical, though not really surprising. He hadn’t gotten his mind wrapped around the idea of all myths being real. Kiba, on the other hand, seemed surprised, trying to argue something like that didn’t exist. I wasn’t sure why, but regardless of his reasoning, I found it illogical. 

Of course, that may have been me just lacking skepticism, but I did have proof of his existence. But that was irrelevant, as I was certain we’d reached our destination. The building before us was quite old, shrouded in trees, seemingly isolated from the rest of campus. The old school building, I was certain I’d heard about it at some point. Despite its age, it seemed in good repair, with the wood free of rot or mold and the window’s pristine. 

“Buchou is here,” Kiba also took notice of our location, as Issei stared at the building in wonder. It was a pretty grand old place, and going inside only confirmed that either had spells placed on it or that someone was taking good care of the place. No dust, nor insects, appeared to have taken any root in this place. 

We stopped in front of one of the doors, one that had a plack placed on it. Occult Research Club, it read, and I almost stopped in my tracks. I couldn’t decide whether the name was a bit too much on the nose, or it was simply a joke. 

Kiba had just knocked on the door and announced our arrival, as I suddenly felt a buzz in my pocket. I reached in, pulling out my phone and frowning. 

“Sorry, but I’m going to have to take this. It’s my sister,” I stated, slightly annoyed at the bad timing. Then again, I should have told her that I was going to this ahead of time. Kiba, thankfully nodded in understanding, leaving me outside the door frame. 

“Yes?” I ask, hoping that my annoyance wasn’t conveyed through the speaker. I didn’t know whether it did or didn’t, but her response only added to it. 

“So, you and Issei, huh,” her voice teased me, and I almost decided to hang up right then and there. But I didn’t. 

“So the rumor mill can’t wait more than twenty-four hours,” I sighed, resisting the urge to facepalm. 

“You know how some people are. They leap at anything and devour it whether it was true or not. Especially when it gives them the feeling of revenge against a pervert and a delinquent,” her comment almost made me pout. 

“Really? Since when did I become the delinquent?” this time I let my displeasure be known, my voice somewhat harsh. She merely laughed back, as if I had told a bad joke. 

“You mean the American loner who sits by himself every day wouldn’t be seen as a delinquent?” I swear, I could tell she was sticking out her tongue at me. I let out a groan, somewhat tired by her antics. 

“Look, I need to do something important. We can have this conversation later,” I decided to swiftly to put an end to the conversation, and I could have felt the pout from where I stood.

“Ok. Love you!”

“Love you too,” I muttered into the device, before ending the call and placing into my pocket. I lightly knocked on the door, and I heard Rais tell me to come in. 

The room was full of the people I expected to be apart of Rais’s peerage. Kiba, Aneko, the second of the two beauties, alongside a tiny girl who did not appear like she belonged in this school at all. Koneko, I believe. I remember my sister also talking about her, mostly about how cute she was. 

Issei seemed to be enjoying himself, and it probably had something to do with two of the most popular girls in school being here. That and the shower. Why did this room even have a shower? I decided to spare my sanity the question a looked around the room. There were several chairs and couches, with each looking quite comfortable. But really drew my eye was the magic runes. On the ceiling, the walls, they were numerous, and I had no grasp of their function. 

The true eye-popper was in the center of the room, fairly large magic circle, with enough room to fit several people. I had to stop myself from drooling. If that's what I thought it was, then I actually might see if I could find that old spellbook on teleportation. 

“We, of the Occult Research Club, welcome you,” Rias spoke, finally pulling my attention away from the circle. Issei seemed about ready to say some form of thank you, but she hadn’t finished yet. “As a devil.”

“EH!” Issei’s reaction was priceless, looking to me, then to Rias, then back to me. His mouth hung open in complete and utter shock, eyes bulging. “You’re talking about him, right?” he stammered out, causing me to chuckle a bit. 

“About that,” I rubbed my head in a sheepish manner. “I’m pretty sure I’m the only human in the room.” Issei’s response was to sit down, appearing shocked. I ultimately sat next to him, seeing as the other seats were being rapidly filled. 

“James is correct. We ourselves are also devils,” Rais stated, and I could hear the hamster wheel inside Issei’s brain making the rounds. However, after my talk about the fallen angels from earlier today, and Santa, he seemed to believe what most would consider an outlandish claim. 

“I’ve spoken to him about the Fallen Angels and why might be after us,” I said, hoping to point the conversation in the proper direction. Rais nodded as I suddenly felt Issei’s gaze turn to me. 

“Wait, really?” Issei stared at me. “I don’t remember you getting a girlfriend.”

“I didn’t. She decided to try and take my family hostage,” I had to stop myself from growling it out. That event was a bit of a sore spot at the moment. “The one that attacked Issei said her name is Mittelt, and thinks I killed her.” 

Rais frowned at my revelation, seemingly lost in thought. 

“Did you?” Issei asked, almost out of shock. 

“If the spell made direct contact, then that’s the most likely outcome. Even a glancing blow would prove crippling,” I shrugged. “Not my intention, but if it keeps my family safe.” 

“Fallen Angels have been at war with Devil’s since ancient times. We’ve been fighting for possession of the Underworld, which is called Hell in the human world. Each side controls one half of the planet. Us Devils form pacts with humans, and receive their sacrifices and feed their strength. Fallen Angels, on the other hand, manipulate humans into killing Devils. Because of this, God ordered his Angel’s to kill both races. The three factions and their war that has been going on since ancient times,” as Rais spoke, I could tell Albion was feeling a little bit nostalgic.

“Those were the days,” I could tell the dragon was grinning, or whatever it was that passed off as grinning for a dragon. “When not even God could stand before Draig and me without aid.” 

Issei, on the other hand, seemed to be processing the story in its entirety. It was a lot to take in, especially for a teenager who never had to experience something like that before. Issei seemed to be lost in thought. 

“Does he know about her?” I watched Rias mouth. I nodded, before coming to a realization. Issei didn’t ask why he was still alive. He wasn’t aware that he died! I mouthed back, hoping she got what I was saying. I think she did. I just hoped she’d break it to him gently. The shock of actually dying and being brought back might be a bit much for Issei right now. 

“As you already know, Amano Yuuma is a Fallen Angel,” Rais spoke once again, seeming to draw Issei from his thoughts. I saw something flashed across his face briefly, only adding to my concern. I don’t think I’ve actually seen Issei angry before, now that I thought about it. 

That made me frown. While Issei had begun to give the impression of passionate, but ultimately pretty chill, the fact I’d been in school for months and had yet to see true anger from him. Then again, that may just be japanese politeness at work, seeing as there were no cases, maybe besides Sona, who really didn’t count, and the pervert trio’s victims, who gave the three exactly what they deserved. 

“This Fallen Angel approached you with a goal in mind. After she accomplished it, she destroyed as much evidence as possible,” Rais continued, her eyes locked straight forward, a look of seriousness written on her face. 

“Goal?” Issei didn’t seem to be taking the string of revelations well, seeming close to panic. 

“Yes. To kill you.”

The world stilled. I winced, preparing for the freak out that was sure to be coming. 

“What!” Issei’s shout took me off guard. My attempt at preparation honestly worked against me, causing my tight muscle’s to uncoil, nearly causing me to jump straight off the coach. “But I’m still alive! How does that work?”

“You called me when you were on the verge of death. I was summoned through this paper,” Rais explained, holding out a small leaflet. My eyes flickered between the rune placed on the piece of paper to the circle of the center of the room. I felt my eyes widen in shock. It didn’t take a genus to figure out they were connected. 

“This magic circle used to summon us Devils. Not many people who draw this circle to summon us, so we hand out leaflets to those who might summon Devils. One of our familiars was disguised as a human and was handing them out at the business district, which is were you got yours,” Rais went on, explaining what happened in detail. Issei likely knew part of what happened, but I didn’t. “After you were attacked by the Fallen Angel, you wished hard enough to summon me. When you summoned me, I knew that you were a Scared Gear user and that you were attacked by a Fallen Angel. However, you were on the brink of death. Even though humans don’t have the same weakness to light Devil’s do, being impaled by a light spear is still lethal.”

“So, I decided to save your life,” Rais stood at her declaration, “That is why you’re alive as a Devil. Ise, you were reborn as a Devil of mine Rias Gremory’s servant!”

I watched as wings snapped from their backs, long and bat like. More than imposing, seeing as it was my first time seeing them. 

“You may want to move,” Albion spoke, causing me to look around. Why? It wasn’t like anything was going to happen. They were just showing off their wings as little extra proof. The same snapping noise that accupaned that of Rais’s peerage was what alerted me to what was happening. I grabbed the top of the couch, legs and arms working in unionison to yank my body out the way of Issei’s wings. His look of shock confirmed that he hadn’t done it on purpose. 

“Let us introduce everyone anew,” Rias nodded to Kiba on her right.

“My name is Kiba Yuuto. As you already know, I’m a second year, just like both of you,” Kiba’s voice was once again full of calm and politeness. “I am a Devil. It’s nice to meet the two of you.”

“First year. Toujou Koneko. Pleased to make your acquaintance. I’m a Devil too,” Koneko spoke very slowly, and I couldn’t tell whether she was being shy or something else entirely. 

“My name is Himejima Akeno, and I’m a third year. I’m also the vice-president of the Occult Research Club. It’s nice to meet you. Even though I’m like this, I’m also a Devil,” her chuckle, or what I thought was a chuckle, the sound of Ufufu, nearly sent chills down my spine. Rais sent me a look, effectively telling me I was up next.

“James Baker, second year.” I bowed slightly, much like the others in the room had. “Human magician, currently employed. It is nice to meet you as well.” 

“And I’m their master as well as being a Devil from the House of Gremory, Rias Gremory. My house holds the rank of Duke. Let’s get alone from now on.”

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“Are you sure it’s wise to release Issei’s Sacred Gear out in the open like this?” I asked, as the members of the Occult Research Club had arrived at one of the small sports field that wasn’t in use. 

“There are spells that keep those without magic away from here, and other’s that will repair any damage caused when we leave,” Rias explained. “I assure you, it’s perfect for our needs.”

“Ok Issei, stand directly across from me,” I shouted, as the brown haired pervert got into position. Rais told me there were a few ways to awaken a Scared Gear, and in our situation, only two were going to word. Induce enough stress on the host so it wakes up as a self defense mechanism, more just brute force it awake. Really, only the later was available for me. Issei had already been attacked twice, and killed once. That should have done the trick, but no, of course it hadn’t. 

“Ok, now, raise your left hand, palm facing the ground,” Issei did as instructed, raising his left hand. “Now, imagine the most powerful being you can think of, and take the most iconic stance you can think of them in.” 

“Ideally, it’ll work something like this,” I punched my open palm with a loud crack, releasing Divine Dividing in all its glory. While I didn’t need a handicap in getting it out, I hoped a demonstration would help speed things along. 

“Strongest being,” I heard Issei mutter, taking a familiar stance. Oh, Goku and his Kamehameha attack. Well, I do suppose there are few things more iconic than that. Let alone from someone that powerful, fictional or not. And it seemed to be working, as faint energy began to glow on his arm. 

“Now, you must perform the attack. Put as much power behind it as you can. Your wants and desires. Otherwise, your Scared Gear won’t activate,” I said, as I watched Issei realize he’d have to actually do the whole Kamehameha motion. 

“Kamehameha!” Issei declared, performing the attack in a very convincing manor. Light began to pour out of his left hand, covering his entire hand in a green glow. Issei started shouting in swift order, freaking out. I hoped Rais was right about the warding, because Issei was creating quite the fuss, and I wasn’t sure how I’d explain what was happening anyway.

I twitched, feeling a slight pulse from within my Sacred Gear as the light from Issei’s grew ever brighter, eventually reaching the point where I had to cover my eyes. Finally, the light began to die, allowing everyone to finally see it. Rather than simply covering his left hand, the Sacred Gear covered everything below the shoulder, creating what looked like a thick limb of dragon scale. 

His fingers now ended like talons, with a green jewel resting at the back of his hand. Issei stared at it with wonder, and I was impressed. The flare of my own Sacred Gear hadn’t escaped my attention. Was it going to be an incomplete awakening, and Albion merely brought it fully to surface somehow? 

“Boosted Gear. At long last,” Albion broke through my thoughts, causing me to internally frown. 

“Albion, please don’t tell me you had something to do with that,” I shot back, somewhat concerned. I almost felt him frown back. 

“No. Not actually, at any rate. This is the first time either of us have been to the other’s awakening,” Albion seemed as confused as I was, now that I actually pointed out what had happened. “It’s possible our presence is what caused Issei’s gear to fully awaken when it normally would have awoken partally.” 

“How do you use this thing?” Issei wasted no time, and I had to chuckle to myself. That question made me feel nostalgic, I remember asking that to my parents, and my sister asking that to me. I wasn’t the only one. I swore I heard Akeno chuckle as well, possibly out of amusement. 

“Slow down, will you. I don’t think you want to go home and explain how you got that to your parents,” I let out a laugh, one that I didn’t know I’d been holding back on. Issei, looked somewhat dejected, almost like he got a question wrong on a test, or something similar. Or he was embarrassed about having to do a Kamehameha whenever he wanted to use his Sacred Gear.

“Relax. Now that Boosted Gear is activated, switching between active and resting states is easy. Close your eyes, and focus on what your hand looked like before.” Issei did as instructed, closing his eyes. As he exhaled, Boosted Gear vanished from sight. 

“Good. You can now open your eyes.” Issei wiggled his fingers, looking at them with the intensity of one trying to decipher some type of magic trick. It reappeared just as suddenly, leaving Issei laughing himself. 

“I’ll leave you to it, then,” Rais spoke, as I noticed the other members of the club had vacated the area, likely to do whatever tasks they needed to perform. “Though I will need to borrow him tomorrow to explain some of the finer points about being a Devil.”

“Of course, senpai,” I bowed, as Rais chuckled. 

“Please, Rais is just fine,” I was corrected, nodding, marking it away in my mind. Issei himself had bowed practically all the way to the ground. Rais let out another brief laugh at our antics, before walking back to the club house building. 

“Shall we begin?” I asked, Issei taking a few moments to physically respond. 

“Right!” Issei’s declaration was full of the vigor I’d begun to associate with him. Well, at least he was enthusiastic about all this. 

“To activate your Sacred Gear, simply say boost. It’ll do the rest,” I started, watching Issei with assumement. 

“Boost!” Issei shouted, rising the gauntlet high into the air.

‘Boost!’ Boosted Gear echoed, emerald jewel flaring brightly. Issei certainly didn’t look or feel different. 

I spared a quick glance at my phone. Well, there was another hour left before my sister’s archery practice ends. I suppose that was enough time see if he actually increased anything. 

“Ok, lets start by running back and forth from over there,” I pointed toward the other end of the field, “We run there and back until we can’t anymore.” Even as I had just begun my to hit my jogging pace, Issei was close to halfway up the field, leaving me behind in a cloud of dust.

Good. Let’s see how long he can keep that up. 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rais had left her familiar in the area to keep an eye on the two, watching as James trained the youngest member of her peerage. Normally, she would be smiling. After all, Issei did possess Boosted Gear, just like she had thought, and even better, she had procured the services of a teacher. But as she walked away, a troubled crease had wormed its way onto her face. 

But things weren’t adding up. During the past week, she had used her familiar to keep an eye on both Issei and James, mostly Issei, and she knew nothing about another Fallen Angel making an attempt on his life. Rais had been alerted when James suddenly left his house an hour before nightfall, seemingly in a panic for no discernible reason. It would make sense that the event occurred sometime between then and when he returned, an hour and a half later. 

That lead to a rather troubling question. How did James know about the attack on Issei’s life, before it had even occured? Sure, it could be just a coincidence, but his actions put that into doubt. Being in contact with the Grigori was absurd as it was unlikely, not to mention they would have noticed such an event. 

Plus, James was a terrible liar. He would have already given away such information by now. In fact, the only thing Rais was sure he lied about was that his family was unaware of the supernatural. But she and Sona had been willing to let that slide. From what he had told them, his Sacred Gear had been active for nearly ten years, meaning it awakened when he was seven. For it to be active at such an age, it was unlikely that he had kept it a secret, or knew the importance of doing so. Unfortainite, but things had worked out so far. 

While not unheard of, awakening a Scared Gear by that age was impressive. Especially for a human of a non magical bloodline. 

But for now, she needed to prepare.


	4. Chapter 4

“Interesting,” I mutter to myself, writing down notes rapidly in a small notebook, looking at the crackling dot of lightning before me. While Issei had been adapting to his newfound lease on life as a Devil, I had been doing my own things, outside of minor physical training that I could grab ahold of him for. 

Many of the spells I’d found in the book Sona had given me were simple, things like creating magical lights, almost akin to candles. Nothing too special, but I’d always had a habit of pulling inspiration from strange places. Now what had once been the bare bones framework for my experiments in magically replicating ball lightning. 

Things weren’t going well, to say the least. Sure, the basic structure was down, but it simply didn’t do anything, and I wasn’t going to get close to a potentially new spell with unknown effects. Nor could I just leave it there, not knowing if it was unknowingly set to some type of timer. 

So I did the most logical thing I could think of.

“Ball Lightning Experiment, test 1,” I spoke, as my phone record me, placed behind several anti-lightning wards and shield spells, like everything else of value in the room, myself included. “Sphere is lightning based, three centimeters in diameter. Thus far, it has spent one minute active with no sign activity. It shows no response to non-organic stimuli.” I tossed an igneous rock, an oceanic basalt at the orb, to no effect.

“This stick is around two and a half meters in length, coming from a still living Arakashi tree, otherwise known as a Quercus Glauca,” I continued, picking the slightly modified branch off the ground, ready once more to fulfill its purpose. 

“I’m going to poke it,” as the stick got within around a foot and a half of the sphere, I felt it flash, letting loose a cocofiany of raging lightning that forced me to take a step back. While I was safe behind my wards, that didn’t change that it felt one of my thunderbolt spells had gone off in my face, a feeling I was intimate with. 

“Well, there’s the fourth time you’ve nearly electrocuted yourself. Do you want a medal?” Albion snarked directly into my mind. 

“How close are we to having the near electrocutions match or surpass the actual ones?” I asked, completely ignoring his jab at my tendency to zap myself while works on spells. 

“A while,” Albion shook his head in annoyance already seeming to anticipate my response. 

“Let’s save celebration until then, shall we,” I grinned before turning back to my phone. “As it can be seen, the spell activates only when organic matter passes a certain distance threshold from the sphere. Voltage is presently unknown, as is the maximum distance the spell effects when explodes. Spell will be known as Lightning Mine for future experiments.” 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“Ah, Issei, what a surprise,” I looked up from my meal with a bit of surprise. Issei and I really didn’t talk all that much. Sure, I was training him before he rode out into the night on his bike, but my endurance and strength training left little time for conversation, and he was convinced I was some type of monster in human flesh.

I mean, seventy pushups and situps every day wasn’t that bad, and surely devil physiology could handle it. 

There had become more or less an unspoken agreement between us. If he was sitting with me for lunch, that meant he wanted to talk about something supernatural in nature. Otherwise, he kept with his two friends, and I kept myself with my sanity. 

“How does one increase their reserves of magic?” he asked the moment he felt my veil go up. I was taken a bit back by such a question, frowning slightly. An unexpected question, but Rias had done a good job of making sure there was little left obviously, leaving whatever came up within his mind.

Seeing how most of his peerage was either older or younger than he was, and the only member his age was Kiba, who Issei didn’t like, I was the one he came too whenever he had a sudden question.

“Using magic is akin to stretching a muscle,” I heard Issei groan the moment I said muscle, but I ignored him and continued on. “The more you use it, the better you get at using it.” I paused, thinking about why he would be asking such a question.

“Where is this coming from, anyway?” I was more than a bit confused. Issei hadn’t shown any interest in magic before now. Seeing how he was now a Devil, apparently, a race that had its own brand of magic, aside from spellcasting that humans had to use, I would be surprised if that didn’t change to some degree. 

“You remember that magic circle at the clubhouse?” I nodded, indeed remember it. “I tried using it yesterday, and couldn’t.” He rubbed his head sheepishly, almost embarrassed with himself. 

“Rias thinks I have less magic than a newborn Devil,” my mouth opened. Then closed. Opened. Then closed. My brain tried to wrap its way around Issei’s statement. 

“What?” was ultimately all I could spit out. I knew Issei’s magical potential was bad, well below what one might expect from a Scared Gear user. Even before he became a Devil, I would be hard pressed to believe he was anything less than bellow the human norm. It might make some degree of sense, that a single pawn piece wouldn’t increase magical power by a significant margin, but he had eight. 

My brain tumbled, already knawing its way through the information. Clearly, Issei’s physical strength wasn’t the only thing need vast amounts of work, but his magical power was in even greater need of being improved. 

That would be more than an uphill battle. Issei had to have some degree of magic, or his Sacred Gear wouldn’t work in the first place. So I just needed to find how much, and start working from there. I was mentally going over spells in my mind, both ones I’ve simply learned and ones I’ve tinkered with. Most of them were combat spells, few even remotely close to appropriate for beginners. 

Sparks was simply a rehashed version of the same spell found in the Elder Scrolls games, cheap, little range, and I had to actually put magic into the mandal for it to actually be useful, but it did its job. Static, the building block for one of my favorite spells was built for incapacitating. Simply cast it around my hand, and the next thing I touched with that hand would be zapped. The long and short of it was that I had a magical teaser. A bit more draining over the short term, but still fun. 

Everything else was either minor cantrips or illusions. And I was not going to teach Issei illusions. Giving a pervert an invisibility spell was like giving a sociopath a book that allows him to kill anyone he wants. It was nothing short of a disaster waiting to happen, and I wasn’t going to play any part of it. 

“Well, I can teach you a few minor spells, but human magic and Devil magic are completely two different beasts. But who knows, maybe it’ll help,” I said. I mean it wasn’t like things could turn out too badly. I mean, getting Issei to point where he could cast a simply candlelight would take long enough, giving me more than plenty of time to improve myself.

“Including veil?” Issei didn’t make an attempt to appear innocent in his question. My eyes narrowed dangerously. 

“Heaven and Hell would need to be at peace, pigs would need to fly, and Hell would need to freeze over before I’d even consider teaching you anything about illusion magic,” I glared straight ahead, likely causing chills to run down Issei’s spine. He jumped back, appearing somewhat fearful. Did he really expect me to not know what he’d do with such a power? No, I was not going to enable your peeping, thank you very much. 

“We can meet after class, and hopefully, I can get you started.”

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

I flipped through the small notebook, making sure every spell was in place. Alongside showing Issei a few spells, I had passed word to Sona and Rias that I had a newfound spell a wished to display. Lightning mine was more than ready, and while a few tweaks could be made, it was functional and fully armed. I had a new stick, and I knew how far the blast radius was. In fact, I’d figured out a way to control that, along with the size of the detection field. 

Issei ran over, clearly happy to get started, even with me holding a massive branch in my hand. I closed my spell tome, pushing it into my backpack. I wouldn’t really need it for this. Like before, the area was completely devoid of other human begins. 

“So, how are we doing this?” Issei rasped, his voice betraying his run from the clubhouse. “And what’s with the stick?”

“Couldn’t convince Sona to let me borrow one of the marker boards, so we’re doing this the old fashion way,” I created two circles in the dirt, before marking runes between the two, pushing aside the dirt of the infield. “This is Candle Light. It does as the name implies, creates light, akin to that produced by a candle.” 

I held out my hand, letting the mandal sit there, not activating the spell. Issei looked at it, almost disappointed in what he saw. I continued to let him study it, before finally releasing the effect. A small light, not providing much compared to the sun’s rays, but it could be seen, which was more than enough. 

“Your turn,” I said, as Issei closed his eyes and focused. I stared at his outstretched palm. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. But nothing happened. Not even a flicker of magical energy came. Issei’s shoulders slumped. 

“We could try using Boosted Gear to increase your magic,” I offered, trying to cheer him up. 

“I can do that?” Issei perked up almost immediately. I would be surprised if it didn’t, but it raised a single problem. Would those boosts be enough? Part of me had my doubts, I wouldn’t lie. Candlelight was such a fundamentally basic and easy to use spell. If Issei’s magical power was too low, then boosting it wasn’t going to anything than brute force a solution. But for now, it would have to do.

“We can try. I can’t make promises that it’ll work though,” I nodded. On paper, it should work. And if it didn’t, then well, I could always try to find another solution. Maybe there was a way to divide the amount of magical energy it took to activate a spell at full strength?

That would be an interesting line of research, actually. Sure, it’s full potential couldn’t be reached without Balance Breaker. I could only imagine, being able to cast dozens, if not hundreds of lightning bolts, or hell, lightning spears, all within a few seconds of each other. Oh, the damage that could be wrot.

“Focus,” I felt Albion probe at my mind, a gentle reminder of what I was here for and needed to do. 

I held out the spell again, letting Issei observe it as he built up his two boosts. Slowly, the circle began to form around his palm, runes taking shape. It hung to his open palm, almost if clinging there. 

“What do I do now?” Issei’s voice was full of childish wonder, and a twinge of fear. Almost like he was holding something precious but fragile, and had no idea what to do with it. Like he was holding a small child of sorts. 

“Just put as much magical energy as you think you need into it, and it should activate itself. But don’t put...,” the spell suddenly cracked. “All of it in,” I finished, preparing wards incase it exploded. Thankfully, even if the spell was overloaded if barely, it didn’t explode with any more force than what could be found in a party popper. 

Issei once again slumped over, as I shook my head. Honestly, it had ended much better than the first time I took a try at spellwork. 

“Relax, you did fine,” I said, trying to cheer him up. “Besides, success isn’t one grand event, it’s a bunch of small steps along a path that it leads to.”

“Plus, compared to what happened when I first tried using magic,” I rubbed my hair, trying to avoid thinking back. All I cared to remember was that everything that happened was messy, dinner was ruined, and that it was my fault. “Really, that was nothing to be ashamed of.” 

Issei seemed to perk up at that, before noticing something over my shoulder. 

“Rias-senpai,” Issei pretty much bows, earning a chuckle from the older devil. Next to the crimson haired devil was Sona.

“Rias, Sona,” I nodded slightly, trying to keep some mediocrity of respect. Issei’s eyes seemed to widen a bit in surprise, while Sona seemed to frown at my lack of politeness. I wasn’t going to be calling her boss if that's what she was expecting. Even if the title was the closest thing to describing how things were. Plus, she co-shared that position with Rias, and she asked that I referred to her more casually than I would otherwise. 

“I’m honestly surprised. To think you’d start with magic so soon,” Rias commented, with a slight grin that either could be smug or taking what I was doing as some type of challenge. 

“If you’re busy, we’re more than willing to move back the demonstration,” Sona adjusted her glasses, keeping her professional appearance. Issei’s eyes flicked to me, clearly curious what this was about, and surprised that Sona was a devil as well. 

“Nows fine,” I shrugged, picking up the stick I had left in the dirt. Sona’s frown only grew, while Issei and Rias looked puzzled. “However, I would advise everyone to stay around ten meters away from that spot for the remainder of this demonstration.” I pointed my stick towards the grassy area of the field, where there would be less dust. Everyone seemed a bit perplexed by my statement, seeing as nobody was near the area, but precautions were precautions. 

I let the spell form in my hand, three circles taking shape before releasing the spell, causing a bright crackling orb to appear three meters off the ground. 

“Originally, I intended this spell to replicate the weather phenomena of Ball Lighting, using candlelight to form the foundation. As can be seen, this didn’t work out. However, the result is much more interesting,” with that, I cast a lightning ward spell around the large branch in hand, and threw it. It arced through the air, getting closer and closer, and the moment it got within two meters, the sphere expanded rapidly. At first glance, it would have looked like an explosion, nearly reaching seven meters across. Within, lightning raged, if only for a few seconds, before finally subsiding. 

“You used a candlelight spell to make that?” Sona seemed far less concerned than I thought she would be. “And failed at your intended goal as well. That is curious.” 

“Using magic is like doing math. Making magic is more like a program. For devils, I don’t know if the same thing implies, but it’s how it works for us humans,” I explained, trying to give my best to give off a scholarly impression. “Sometimes, runes don’t simply match together, and it ends up creating a result that, mathematically speaking”I’, shouldn’t happen. That’s what happened here. Something in the spell’s framework, causes the spell to be used all at once, rather than a prolonged discharge.” 

“I’m still curious as to why you tried to make such a spell,” Rias and Sona had clearly understood what I was getting at, though Issei still looked confused. I’d be a bit surprised if he wasn’t. What I was talking about was like expecting a beginner math student to understand the basics of calculus. 

“Which is better? Being able to shoot lightning, or being able to through an orb of lightning that shoots even more lightning?” I shrugged, assured in my point. From a coolness perspective, the later sure beat out the former. Might even beat it in efficiency, too. Rias agreed with my reasoning, or at the very least, accepted it. 

“I kind of have two versions of the spell at this point,” I held up my hand, letting the first variation of the spell flicker to life, without the ruin that allowed it to explode. “This would be considered the default variation. Its activation radius is around a third of a meter in size and discharges a blast approximately five meters across. It will always appear two meters from the user unless there is a physical object in the way, in which will cause the spell to fizzle out. 

“The second, ”I held up my other arm, this time holding a set of three mandal’s, with the outer ring constantly shifting, as runes faded in and out. “It allows for the caster to control things like blast radius, detection area, and distance the mine can be set. It costs more for a greater increase beyond the original. I haven’t tested the minimum or maximum to their greatest extent, so there still might be a few changes I might have to add. Beyond that, I think it’s perfectly safe and usable.”

“I must admit, being able to make calculated spells is no simple task, yet you seem to have a very good grasp on it,” Sona nodded, seemingly pleased, “most human magicians simply seek to learn spells, rather than formulate their own. I’d very much like to see a copy of this and any other spells you might have.”

“I would like that as well. I do believe Akeno would enjoy some new material as well,” Rias nodded in agreement, causing my chest to fill with pride from the indirect praise. 

“Just wait until they learn how many times you’ve electrocuted yourself,” Albion teased, which I ignored. Hey, I put several years of my life into this stuff, and I was finally seeing some payoff! Sure, I hadn’t done it for recognition, but at that moment, I didn’t care.

“Do you want just the spells, or do you want me to leave in my scrawlings?” I questioned. The spellbook in my backpack wasn’t just full of spell function and mandal’s, it was full of research notes, drawings, and sometimes, just random thoughts pertaining to a spell, where the idea came from, and sometimes, just random stuff and theories if what I was doing wasn’t working. Sure, stuff like that wouldn’t be needed, but it was just polite to ask anyway, if only for clarification's sake. 

I would leave out anything I was still working on or simply unsafe. The arcane golem spellwork was out by several miles, for more than a few reasons, the fact it didn’t work no matter what I tried withstanding. Same with my strongest, seeing as that would fry anyone who tried using it and be overkill nine times out of ten. 

“Just details directly pertaining to the spells should suffice,” Sona said simply, followed by a nod from Rias. So only diagrams, functions, and some important notes. That sounded like an easy enough workload. 

“Ok, I’ll get some supplies on the way home, after I finish with Issei for the day,” I nodded, hearing the brown-haired pervert gulp. 

“Please, don’t overexert him,” Rias smiled slightly, before heading back to the clubhouse, while Sona left to go whatever it was she had to do. 

“Wait, so since when was Sona a Devil again?” Issei asked, whether from his own confusion or an attempt at distraction I didn’t know. 

“I’ll explain to you while we run,” I grinned, causing Issei to let out a groan. I merely chuckled. Hey, if he wanted to outpace me in the sun, he needed to build up his endurance, and that couldn’t be built up if we stood around all day. 

“Look at it like this,” I said, hoping to get Issei into a mood where he’d actually run. “Do you remember old school Dragon Ball, back when they started training with gravity multiple times that of earth’s?” 

“Yeah, but I don’t see what that has to do with this?” Issei questioned, giving me a puzzled expression. 

“Sunlight makes Devils weaker, right? So wouldn’t training under its effects makes you even stronger?” I grinned slightly, watching as my reasoning wiggled its way through his mind. 

“That’s almost crazy enough to work,” I heard him mutter, and I grinned even more. Of course, it would work. On paper, at any rate. “And as for the whole Sona thing, well.” 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“Let me get this straight,” Issei stared at me, completely flabbergasted by what I had told him. “So, your Sacred Gear has a powerful dragon inside it that also communicates with you telepathically.”

“That is correct,” I nodded, watching the green-eyed pervert wrap his mind around what I had told him.

“My Sacred Gear also has one, and those two dragons were rivals, and we are supposed to carry on that legacy,” I nodded, hoping to continue things along. “And you, being tired and stressed, accidentally respond out loud to Albion, who wants you to punch me in the face, and revealed everything you were trying to keep secret.” 

The last part caused Issei to begin laughing, and even I chuckled at myself. Yeah, when put like that, it sounded more stupid and silly than it actually was. 

“Besides, fights between Divine Dividing and Boosted Gear tend to destroy where they take place, let it be in the real world or the supernatural one. I’d much rather not be involved in any city-leveling events in the foreseeable future,” I added, causing Issei’s eyes to bug out like it had when I’d told time the entire student council was made of devils. Oh, yeah, I really did miss out on recording that one.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Issei and I split up on the way home, him to enjoy what time off he had before his devil job started tonight, and me to pick up some more supplies. With an unsurprising lack of anything that might resemble a traditional spellbook, I settled for the old standby. 

From there, most of my time was spend copying down whatever was relevant to the spells at hand, and I was making headway, organizing the book in alphabetical order, rather than it’s original chronological one. I’d got about halfway through the first copy when I got a text from Rias. I frowned, looking at the time displayed on my phone. It was already dark out, closing in towards nine o’clock. 

On one hand, Rias wouldn’t contact me if it wasn’t important, even if I hadn’t been given the task of writing done three spellbooks. But, I had no idea how long this activity would be, and it’s a school night. I’d much rather not stay up too late anyway, and I really had no idea how being active at night effected Devils anyway. I mean, did devil’s even need sleep?

However, going still would prove to be a good idea. I mean, going with a little less sleep wouldn’t be the end of the world. I’d have to book it to the clubhouse though, and I was certain the gates wouldn’t be open this time of night. And me running around might cause questions that I didn’t like the possible answers too. 

I let out a groan, forcing my brain to stop its complicated loop as I grabbed my phone and house keys. 

“Sweety, where are you going?” A voice asked from behind me, leading me to turn around. Oh, right, I knew I was forgetting something. 

“Rias contacted me. She said she wanted me for something,” I said, causing my mother to frown. Between her and my father, she was the most protective towards us and really didn’t approve of the whole ‘getting involved with Devils’ thing, even though she understood the necessity of the situation. Her green eyes stared at me, almost as if to pierce my soul. 

Finally, her stare relented, ultimately sighing in preemptive defeat. “Just be careful, ok. I don’t want to see you get hurt.” 

“I will, mom,” I grinned, unlocking the door to step outside into the cool night air. “I love you!” 

“I love you too,” as I turned around, I felt something. It was a prick, a blink and you’ll miss it feeling. It made my hair on the back of my neck to stand up on end. But there was no source, no magic, and no explanation. Ultimately, I ignored it, even though Albion felt a bit unnerved by it. What was I supposed to do anyway? Expect that it somehow came from my mother, who didn’t have a killer bone in her body? 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

“I was wondering if you were going to make it,” Rias smile was warm and friendly, filled with a bit of pleasant surprise. The entire club was arranged outside the front gate of the school, still in their uniforms. 

I was partially surprised. Even Issei, who had a likely chance to change at home, hadn’t removed his school uniform. Speaking of the pervert, he seemed somewhat depressed again, looking down at his feet. Had something happened that I wasn’t aware of, or was this something new? Or was that why Rias had called me here? 

“Do you remember what Sona and I told you about Stray Devils?” the question took me off guard, and I had no shame in admitting it. 

“You didn’t,” I stated rather bluntly. I didn’t know whether I sounded rude or not, but Rias seemed to shrug it off. 

“A stray devil is a devil that has turned against their master or has killed them,” Rias began, “here in the mortal world, they’re especially dangerous, as they don’t have a king piece to stabilize their powers, causing their strength to go out of control. It is our job to deal with them if they cross into our territory.”

I nodded, processing the information. While I could see some justifiable cases for why one would commit such an act, such as a king being cruel, if not outright forcing one to do things against their will. However, I wasn’t going to ignore that there was a threat to the town, and that is was going to need to be dealt with. 

Our target was hiding on the outskirts of town, in an area I never visited. Sure, Rias’s peerage was doing well, being able to see in the night, but I sure couldn’t see a damn thing. I didn’t even need to enter the building to feel ill at ease. 

“Smell of blood,” Koneko’s voice rang out from the darkness, somewhere from my right. Note, if I was going to continue this, I needed to work on a spell that let me see in the dark! All the while, I felt Issei’s nerves increase. All the while, I felt something build up around me. Killing pressure, and it wasn’t quite like anything I’d experienced before. Then again, my experience with such things was minimal, but I’d already formed two spells, nerves on a fine point edge. I released several spells, sending orbs of light into the darkness. Each spell created a bright flash in the distance as I attempted to reveal the stray but to no success. 

I was vaguely listening to Rias’s explanation of the whole evil piece system, and the Rating Games that arose from it. To call it even remotely close to chess would be like calling a car a motorcycle, or calling chess an accurate war simulator. 

“It approaches,” Albion warned, even though I could already feel shear bloodlust radiating from something I couldn’t see. Each footfall was load, like some type of monster, one that had pulled itself straight from hell. My imagination ran wild, each possibility as worse than the one that came before. Centaur, squid abomination, half spider freak straight out of Dark Souls. 

Once again, candlelight spells formed behind me, even as it’s inhuman laugh echoed around us. 

“Candlelight, shoot,” I mutter, attempting to calm my raging nerves, releasing more than a dozen orbs of light through the area. It didn’t light up the whole space, but it lit up enough for me to see the beast before us. 

I regretted that choice. I averted my eyes immediately from the completely uncovered, but I couldn’t completely ignore the two spears it held in hand. Its tail twitched erratically, as the light from my spell appeared to be painful to her eyes. Supporting her body were four massive legs, ending in razor-sharp claws, each easily enough to cut me open with ease. 

“Yuuto!”

“Yes!”

Kiba went in first, taking off like a rocket towards the stray, dancing around it with grace and ease. I was able to follow him, if only just barely. I blinked, and the next thing I heard was it’s scream, as both its arms collided with the ground, blood painting the walls. Kiba now had two blades in hand. 

“Yuuto’s piece is knight. Those with the knight piece receive a boost in speed,” Rias explained, and I did suppose that made visual sense. But the swords. It seemed like Issei wasn’t the only one with a Sacred Gear. Kiba had Sword Birth if my memory was correct. 

While my attention was on Kiba, Koneko had moved to join the fight as well. 

“Die insect!” was the only reason I had noticed the small girl, as the stray tried to step on her. The key word tried. Despite the fact the thing was more than three times my height, and probably many times that my weight, Koneko was holding it off with ease. No, my eyes widened in a mix of shock and horror was the tiny girl managed to lift the stray entirely off the ground. And that was before she threw it into the air, with the follow-up punch sending it flying across the room. 

“The trait of a rook is simple. Absolute strength and physical defense,” Rias continued her lecture, completely unaware of how much of an understatement what she said was. I mean, I never thought I would feel pity for the laws of physics, but here I was. 

However, it seemed to be getting back up, despite bleeding out from it’s two missing limbs alongside the fact that its ribs and organs were now likely little more than a fine paste. Stubborn was likely a word to describe, but this was a fight to the death. All things had an instinctual drive to keep themselves alive. Well, most things. 

“James,” I was surprised when Rias called my name, but I stepped forward anyway. Seeing this monster taken down a peg or two helped, but part of me was doubting that I’d need to have used balance breaker from the start. 

“So the human comes out to play,” I could tell it was taunting me. Underestimating me. I clamped down hard on my pride before it could flare up. “I will teach you…”

I never let it finish. Lightning connected with its face, causing it to scream in pain, but it wasn’t enough to kill. I fired the second bolt into the stomach, scorching the area into charcoaled flesh. Divine Dividing hummed to life, lifting me off the ground as if to create space. 

“If there is anything you should learn to fear, it is us,” I mutter to myself, though I doubted that the statement wasn’t even remotely private. Then I let both spears of lightning fly. A fresh scream of pain confirmed that both had found their mark, burrowing deep into its front legs. The stray’s face, once arguably pristine, looked up at me with a single hate-filled eye, the other lost in a mass of darkened, charred flesh. 

It could only keep my gaze for a single second before each spear detonated. Chunks of the limb flew everywhere in a bloodless splatter. Yet, it’s body still moved, a combination of its devil nature and its present monstrous form seemingly allowing it to shrug off more damage than it had any right to. 

“The best piece for James would be bishop,” Rias explained, seemingly uncaring of how brutal I had just been. “Bishop’s may be the physically weakest of the pieces, but they provide a significant boost to magical power.” I almost resented that remark. Sure, I wasn’t a devil, and I certainly wasn’t going to be winning weightlifting anytime soon, but I certainly could do more than snipe from afar with spells. 

“Akeno,” Rias commanded, leading me to fall back, planting both feet on the ground once again. I was curious to see Rias’s queen in action. The only warning I received was a flash above, as lightning arced directly from the sky. It’s body twitched, the stray letting out a wordless scream of pain. It wasn’t the screams of pain that had been invoked before. No, this was the scream of something being electrocuted to death. If this was a regular affair, no wonder she wasn’t surprised by me. Akeno likely did worse with more regularity. 

I immediately tuned out the sadistic laughing. If I let that image seer itself into my head, then I was never going to be able to look at her the same again. Thankfully, Rias had begun talking again, so I actually had a reason to look away from the display before me. 

“The queen piece has attributes for all the other pieces, the speed of a knight, strength, and defense of a rook, combined with the magical prowess of a bishop. She is the strongest member of my peerage, besides myself,” Rias finished, as I tried to process the information given to me. Barring the king was supposed to be the weakest piece, the chess analogy was holding itself together if one was willing to stretch their imagination. 

Which left Issei as her only pawn, which had coasted her all eight of the things. Out of all the pieces, pawns were the weakest, though one should only underestimate them at their own peril. A stray pawn that managed to get all the way across the board could become any of the four other pieces. Did such a mechanic become translated, and how would it work if it did? 

I looked up as I heard Issei gulp, regretting it at once, seeing as Akeno’s face was now flushed red, some form of twisted blush. Great, I was going to have nightmares tonight, wasn’t I?

It took a few minutes, but the traumatizing onslaught was at its end. I was very, very afraid of what she might be able to do with my spells. Rias stroud forth, raising her hand. 

“Any last words?” it’s something I expected to hear out a Saturday morning cartoon villain. However, from Rias, it actually sounded intimidating. Like she hadn’t fought some monster that needed to be vanquished, but rather like this was almost like child's play. 

“Kill me,” it wasn’t a request, it was a demand. Where Kiba, Koneko and I had damaged it, weakened it, crippled it, Akeno had broken it. All that was left was a fairly living pile of scorched meat. 

“Then disappear,” a mass of black and crimson exited her hand, eating away at what remained of the stray. In a few seconds, it’s body was entirely gone, not a trace of blood or bone remained. I shuttered. Disappear indeed. 

“The Power of Destruction,” Albion seemed to be taken back, seemingly surprised. I turned inwardly, puzzled. 

“You recognize it?” I asked. He had fought against the Devils before, so I shouldn’t be too surprised he would have heard of such a thing. 

“Yes, but it doesn’t make sense,” I could feel Albion’s confusion, which did nothing to resolve me of mine. He sensed mine though, which I was thankful for. 

“The first thing you must know about Devils is that each major bloodline has a unique ability, belonging to them and them alone. The Power of Destruction, as its name implies, can unmake anything, and is arguably one of the strongest of these abilities,” Albion explained. 

“So, Rias has one of those powers. Shouldn’t that make it less of a surprise?” I remained confused, pressing for the complete picture. 

“If you let me finish, you would know that the Power of Destruction is not the power held by the bloodline of Gremory. It is found in the bloodline of Beal” Albion continued, cutting me off before I could interrupt again. “And yes, I am certain she is of the Gremory line like she claims. Their crimson hair might as well be their key defining trait.” 

“Oh,” was my only response. Clearly, I still had much to learn about Devils as a whole. Still, that was a power I didn’t want to cross, and I had learned a few new things and could take a stab at why Rias wanted to look at my work, even if it was to pass it on to Akeno. I still almost shuttered at the thought. 

I looked up to Issei, who seemed to be trying to find out what piece he had. His eyes widen, before his body slumped, likely remembering what I told him at lunch. 

“I’m a pawn, aren’t I?” I honestly felt bad for the poor guy. It certainly wasn’t every day you found out you were the weakest piece in Devil chess.


	5. Chapter 5

“So, this isn’t going to work,” I looked at the magical circle held in my hand frowning slightly. My sister was watching me from a few feet back, eyes seeming unfocused on her task. 

“If you release the spell, then it will fail,” her voice had a disturbing edge of finality to it, and I ultimately sighed, letting it fade. Well, there went a few years as well as my hopes and dreams. 

“You were attempting to recreate the effects of Annihilation Maker with spellcraft. Even in failure, the fact you managed to get this far is worthy of praise,” Albion chimed in with an attempt to cheer me up. I let out a sigh, letting the stress wash out of my body. Sure, I was going to be sad later, but Albion was right. 

“How important was that spell anyway?” my sister asked, wearing a grin on her face that made it clear she was taking some degree of sisterly joy from this. 

“It was the spell that would create constructs made of solid magic that would listen to my command,” I said, indulging her mock curiosity. She shot me a look as if I had been speaking a foreign langue. “You know, the spell I’ve been on for the past few years now.” Her eyes seemed to light up with realization.

“Oh, you mean the dinosaur spell?” I paused, almost if I had been punched in the gut. Albion let out a snort and chuckle, easily remembering my original intentions for this spell when I was much younger. I let out a groan into my hands, rubbing my face.

“Yes, the ‘dinosaur spell’” I admit, still clutching my forehead. I put a lot of time and effort into that spell, and hearing it referred too in such a simple manner was maddening, no matter how accurate the statement was. “How long are you going to be holding that over my head for?”

The only response I got was her sticking out her tongue as I let out a massive sigh. I pray she gets this out of her system in short order. Otherwise, she was going continue on this train for at least a week, if not more. 

“So, Albion, what’s next on the list of nearly impossible magic stuff? I think it’s time for this one to take a bit of a break,” I turned inward, ignoring my sister’s teasing for the moment. 

“I believe you mentioned creating generalized magic circles that could be added to spells to create different effects without changing the base spell,” Albion nodded, “I think you stated something about this idea coming from Dungeons and Dragons, of the 3.5 edition.” 

I frown, thinking back. Now that I thought about it, I never actually played that version of the game. 

“You played Pathfinder, as of which Jacob put it, ‘the successor to 3.5 and what the fourth edition should have been,’” I nodded, indeed remembering Jacob’s thoughts on the game. For a few moments, it made me homesick, remembering the games I used to play and who I played them with. I shook my head to free myself from the feeling, ignoring the fact that those books were currently piled up in my room, without purpose. 

“I’ll go over them tonight. Start tomorrow, provided other assignments don’t pop up,” I nodded to myself, mentally checking my worklist. Mostly everything long term was done or nearing completion unless I had forgotten something. 

“Are you ignoring me?” my sister break through my thoughts, causing me to look up. 

“Maybe,” I teased, sticking out my tongue. She let out a chuckle at my childish antics. 

“Let's head back inside, it’s starting to get a bit chilly,” she didn’t look cold, and I honestly doubted she was. Kansas was much colder than it was right now, and we both knew she preferred t-shirts and shorts regardless of the weather. 

Ultimately, I decided to take the bait. Maybe playing some games would help me take my mind off things. But not before taking a good-natured jab at her. 

“Are you getting soft on me? Kansas winters are much colder than this, you know.” She lightly punched my shoulder, laughing all the while. 

“Soft? That’s funny, coming from the man who dresses up like an Eskimo the moment it gets below twenty.” 

“You mean the only one of us that actually don’t want to catch hypothermia, right?” 

We continued like that for a few hours, taking quick verbal jabs at one another while we were certain our parents weren’t listening. Also, playing games was never a bad thing, even if I was playing with a cheater. 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

I was honestly surprised when Issei had once again joined me for lunch. Usually, it would be at least a few days between such events. But he had remained down in the dumps since yesterday evening if what I saw on the way to school was any indication. 

I mean, yeah, he seemed to be a bit depressed before finding out he was a pawn, meaning I was missing a certain piece of information. Of course, it could be the whole girlfriend murdered my thing. Did they have therapists in Hell? The Underworld? Whatever, I should honestly try to bring that up with Risa at some point, sooner rather than later. 

“So?” I asked as Issei rubbed the back of his head. “What’s up?” The brown haired pervert looked a bit sheepish, and a bit on edge. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I was already preparing the spell. 

“Uh, I don’t think we need the illusion today, actually,” Issei’s comment took me completely off guard. Issei was coming to me for regular person advice? I swore my brain shut itself down for a few seconds. I stopped myself from muttering like an idiot, putting my hands under my chin. 

“Issei, you now have me extremely interested,” My posture may have made me look like a villain ripped straight from James Bond, but I was already invested. 

“I could probably talk about it with Matsuda and Motohama but, they’d be missing important parts,” a frown grew on my face. Did it have something to do with Rias chastising him last night? 

“Ok. Please, start at the beginning,” I nodded, taking a quick bite out of my muffin, before setting the food down in its wrapper. 

“Well, after we went our separate ways, I ran into to someone,” Issei continued to rub his head, much more than usual. Still, it was strange how close I was to being involved in all this. “She got lost trying to find the church outside of town so I decided to escort her there.” 

“Pardon me,” I interjected, “but there’s a church in this town?” I was more than used to such sights in America, but the fact this was Japan, and this was in Devil territory as well, surprised me. I was ignoring the blatantly obvious, devil getting involved with a holy lady joke. And his whole stupidity in doing so. 

“Yeah. A friend of mine’s parent’s used to work there, but they moved to Great Britain a few years back,” Issei explained nodding away. “Anyway, I brought her the Church. She tried to a get me to come inside to thank me, but I didn’t.” 

“Logically speaking, what you did was very unwise,” I said, taking his pause as him wanting me to input my own information. Before he could get dejected, however, I continued on. “However, helping her when no-one else would is something she’ll remember, and I don’t see a need to antagonize the other members of the three during peacetime.”

I mutter something under my breath, before throwing up the illusion spell anyway.

“But does she know you were a Devil?” I narrow my eyes. Surprisingly Issei shocks his head side to side. 

“No, I don’t think so,” Issei grinned a bit awkwardly as if he felt guilty about lying to her. I had also realized something. Throughout that short exchange, he hasn't mentioned anything about her physical appearance. I was thankful, no doubt about it, but the fact he didn’t mention anything was out of character. 

Oh, hell, please don’t tell me Issei had a crush on this lady of the Church. I was not willing to play Mercutio to that pair of Romeo and Juliet. 

“Issei, you do realize that Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, not a romantic blueprint, right?” I shook my head, as Issei sent me a puzzled look. Right, I forgot that Japan wasn’t too big on Shakespeare. It was a small mercy that I didn’t have to read any more of it, even if when I referenced it, it flew past people’s heads. He did seem to get part of it.

“It’s not like that!” Issei held his hand up as if surrendering. “I mean, she’s cute and all, but it’d be dangerous!” I bit back a sigh, wanting to push further and knowing I honestly shouldn’t. At least he realized it was stupid to get involved with her. 

“She does have a Sacred Gear though,” I froze in place. Dead on the spot. That was not good, not good at all. 

“It’s not like it’s dangerous or anything. All it can do is heal,” Issei panicked, clearly noticing my face of mute horror. 

“Albion?” I turned inward, and he sensed the intent behind my question, thankfully. 

“Healing based Sacred Gears are rare and extremely valuable. It’s impossible to identify based on what we know, but any group that possesses one will certainly have a leg up in combat,” Albion’s voice rumbled. “You are concerned that the fallen will make a play towards this one as well?” 

“Yes,” I mutter aloud, taking Issei somewhat by surprise. 

“Eh? Yes, what?” Issei stared at me, and this time, it was my turn to rub the back of my head out of embarrassment. 

“Sorry, I was talking with Albion for a few seconds,” I grinning slightly, before forcing my face into a more serious expression. “I’m concerned about the group of fallen that’s been a pain in our side might try to go after her as well.” 

Issei’s reaction was interesting by itself. His face contorted and twisted, emotions flying by at a mile a minute. Ultimately, it settled on defeat. I couldn’t truly hide my shock at the changes in expression. For a person I wrote off as a pervert, he had more emotional depth than I first thought. If he was this protective of someone he barely knew from across battle lines, hurting his friends might prove to be a quite a horrifying sight. 

“But I can’t go near the Church, even if Rias hadn’t told me so,” Issei looked down at his feet. “As a devil, there’s nothing I can really do.” 

“That may be, but I’m more than capable of trying to keep an eye on things,” I grinned, a light dawning in Issei’s face. As a human, I can get close and possibly even enter the Church. Sure, the last part was risky, but it would be nice to know if I still could. 

“Really? You would do that?” the pervert sounded surprised at my offer, eyes already misting up. 

“I have more than a few reasons, like how I still ill at ease with them still going around and using having zero knowledge on them. And the fact if she is working at the church that is in the middle of Devil territory, likely means that she’s here by Rias and Sona’s permission. A diplomat, if you will. If something were to happen to her, it would reflect badly on the two of them, to say the least,” I explained. Even if, again, I didn’t want to get involved in the supernatural, the sooner I didn’t have to worry about the feathery killers running about, the better. 

“But, what about the books you needed to write?” Issei gasped, realizing that I had been told to finish those beforehand. I bit back a yawn, hardly the first of today. Issei seemed to realize it, eyes going wide. “Did you already finish it already?” 

“Finished the first one last night. Set up the rest with the copier. I should be able to hand it over tomorrow. It’s honestly finished by now though,” This time, I wasn’t able to stop myself from yawning, leading whatever came next into some form of garbled mess. “Work must be completed before play can be had.” 

“How are you even doing that?” Issei asked, before slumping over somewhat realizing the answer to is own question. “Let me guess, magic.” I shot him a thumbs up, smiling. Sure, it had been a bit complicated to set up, but it was working just fine. Or, at least, it should be. If not, I would just have to copy it by hand again, which was only time-consuming. 

I just hoped it didn’t come to that. 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

I would have done what Issei had requested of me one I had managed to clear the clubhouse for the day. Plans had already begun to take root in my mind. Stealth was out by default. My illusion spells only had any real effect against non-magical people so I would easily be picked up on. And I also didn’t want to be too straightforward. No kicking down the doors time around. 

However, Rais had other plans, wanting me to go with Issei to one of his, well, contracts. She said something about becoming more knowledgeable about how Devil’s typically deal with mortals. I had to clear it with my parents, of course. They weren’t exactly too happy, but I had their permission. And Rias having a good chuckle about how much I listen to them. 

She made an offer to help me if they ever said no. I just pointed out that doing so would betray the trust they placed in me, so Rias let it slide. Once the sun had gone down, Issei and I were off. Him on his bike, a simple thing, while I decided to indulge a little. Divine Dividing’s wings were more than enough to let me keep up with a speeding devil on a bike. 

“Those things let you fly?” Issei shouted at me from below. I laugh, doing a barrel roll mid-flight, before evening out again. 

“Yeah! You should be able to as well, with those devil wings of yours,” Oh, how I missed doing this. I enjoyed, no revealed in this feeling. I liked to think Issei’s jaw hit the floor again, but I really couldn’t see from my angle.

The house he came to a stop at was fairly large in size. It looked like a nice place to live, honestly. I dispelled my illusion as my wings faded, tapping lightly to the ground. Everything looked normal, save for one, small detail. The front door was open, despite it being nighttime. Issei took a step forward as if to enter the house, as I grabbed his arm and pulled him back. 

“Issei, this might be a crime scene or something,” I said, a feeling sinking in my gut. He nodded, his body seeming extremely weakened all of a sudden. I nearly put in 911, before realizing I was in Japan, not America, and began to put in Japan’s emergency number instead. However, I did so, I frowned. 

Something was wrong here, beyond that. Rias had sent Issei here for a contract. But now there didn’t appear to be that sender present. Of course, this could be a mundane break in, but what exactly were the odds of that? Kouh was a good town, and I didn’t like believing in coincidences. Especially ones with magic involved like this. 

Ultimately, I went to my contacts list, quickly fishing out Rias’s number, and pressing call. It didn’t even get a chance to ring one time fully before it was picked up. 

“Hello, this is Rias speaking,” even across the line, I could tell she was a bit concerned. 

“This is James. Rias, I think there might be a bit of a problem here,” I said, trying to keep my own unease out of my voice. I tried to take in what I could, absorbing the scene. Everything seemed to be in good shape. The door didn’t appear to be kicked in, and as far as I could tell, there weren’t any signs of violence. 

“The door’s open and there doesn’t seem to be anyone here,” I continued, looking for any sign that this was mundane, and not at all related to the supernatural. “And Issei seems to be freaking out at the moment.” 

“I’ll gather everyone up. We’ll be there as soon as we can, ”I heard movement over the line, as her voice became more stern “I want you two to look into it, but if anything appears dangerous, vacate the area immediately, understood?”

“Understood,” I repeated into the lin, but it had already gone dead. 

“Well?” Issei’s nervousness was still there, completely unchanged. I bit back a frown. I didn’t like those marching orders, but something was in there, standing outside wasn’t going to do us much in the way of good anyway. It could make it even more dangerous if the fighting spilled out into the street. 

“We are going inside. We do not touch anything, and if we see anything out of the ordinary, we get out as quickly as possible,” I said, taking the first step into the hallway. Issei had removed his shoes in all politeness, while I kept mine on. I could see lights at the end of the hall, faint and flickering as if produced by candles. 

Was the costumer sleeping and simply left their door ajar? My eyes flicked bad to Issei, who continued look like he was about to be jumped by some type of horror monster, despite his completely silent footfalls. If Issei was this worked up over something, then it would be best to keep up my guard.

I pushed open the door slowly, peeking inside the room, before stepping through, Issei right behind me. Table, a sofa, a chair, a lamp, a few candles, lit and flickering, and a television. It looked like a nice, normal, living room. 

That thought was shattered after Issei let out a gasp. I turned my head, looking at where he was staring. It took all but a glance for bile to start rising out of my throat. I turn my head away as Issei lets loose his stomach, vomiting on the floor, nearly causing me to do the same. I turn my thoughts away from the crucified body, trying to avoid thinking about it. 

I wanted to mutter something, anything, under my breath. But I’m pretty sure that fits Rias’s description well enough. One didn’t need to read the message written in blood. It was very clear about how it wanted us gone. 

“Issei, we are leaving!” I shouted, my body operating on instinct, trying to remember the layout on the way in. I grabbed Issei’s arm as he gasped for air, using the strength of my right to quickly if somewhat painfully, get him back on his feet. In my left, a defensive spell flashed into existence. 

I began pulling him towards the door, only for it to swing open. He was a man, a priest of some sort based on the robes he wore. I felt Issei step back behind me, as I let go of his arm. 

“Issei, stay behind me,” I mutter, this time in Japanese. Hopefully, this guy didn’t understand a word I was saying. He looked like was out of town, white hair and all that. I raised my right arm, now free, two circles appearing above my hand, pointed directly at the priest.

“You so much as take a step forward, I will electrocute you,” I threatened, also bluffing at the same time. The last thing I wanted was to set the house ablaze. It didn’t take long to put two and two together. If we were looking for that poor man’s killer than he was directly in front of us. The maddening grin on his face, the glint in his eye, as if he was happy that he thought there would be more killing before the night is done. 

“A human-kun and a Devil-kun! I didn’t think I’d have so many people to punish tonight!” he laughed as if he had some type of divine revelation from a none to friendly god. I kept myself positioned between the insane priest and Issei, biting back the urge to punch this man in the face while he was still stupidly within range. 

“Issei, I’m going to give you an opening. Make a break for it as soon as you can. I’ll be fine,” I continued, not taking my eyes off the lunatic for a second. 

“Hey! Didn’t you know it’s rude to ignore someone when they are talking to you?” if I could kill a man just by looking at them, his eyes would have been burned out, followed by whatever he called a brain. 

“I’m Freed Zelzan, and I’m from a certain organization of Exorcists,” the now identified and self-proclaimed exorcist laughed. 

“Yeah, and I’m the Queen of England,” I snapped, taking the wind clean out of his monologue sail. “I’m pretty sure the Church doesn’t knowingly employ sociopaths like yourself, so do yourself a favor and tell us who you’re really working for.” 

There were two outcomes I really wanted out of this. The first was that he attacked me in a fit of rage and anger, or him spilling the beans. Really, either one worked just fine for me, so long is it took his attention away from Issei. Being one of the two of us that wasn't vulnerable to holy energy, it made sense for me to hold the line. 

He stared at me for a few seconds, shocked by either my defiance or for calling him a loon. Then he began to laugh, akin to that of the shrieking of a hyena. 

“You have some balls on you human-kun, but I’ll let you in on a little something. Relying on Devil’s makes no longer a human!” a bladeless hilt extended from his sleeve, as a blade of pure light exits the blade. I had to stop my inner nerd from leading me to charge forthright then and there, to reclaim the lightsaber away from the lunatic who had no right to wield a weapon of the Jedi. 

“I don’t even need my gun to kill you! Now die!” He raised the blade with both hands, darting forward to bring it down in a bisecting strike. I smirked and activated the spell in my hand. Freed pivoted, expecting a lightning bolt or some other spell from my threat beforehand. Instead, his death strike was stopped, a claw of near solid lightning blocking the strike. 

I let the defensive spell go, quickly replacing it with another, before making a grab at the madman while he was still off balance. He managed to dart backward, landing closer to the door. His hand reached slowly towards pocket, likely where the gun was stored. 

Meant to be used against devils or not, a gun was a gun, and there was no way I was letting him bring a firearm into this. I pushed forward, aiming a minor shock spell near his ear. His eyes tracked the spell perfectly, following it past his face as he rotated slightly. 

Lightning met blade in a shower of sparks, my eyes burning into his own. He reached towards his pockets once again, and this time, I managed to grab his arm, locking it in place. 

“Release! Static!” I declared, smirking as I awaited Freed to tumble to the floor, slowly vanishing as nothing happened to the lunatic. Instead, he did nothing but laugh and howl. 

“I never thought what that fat priest told me about his bracelet was true, but I’m certainly glad I took it off his corpse!” his grin was ugly, something I’d expect to see out of some slasher movie. 

Well, if that wasn’t going to work, then I might as well not waste the opportunity. 

“Divide,” I heard Issei gasp behind me, as the resistance I had faced from his blade lessened. Half his strength and speed added itself to my own. I watch Freed’s face twist into something akin to surprise, maybe fear, if his twisted mind could comprehend such emotions. 

“Then!” I shouted, throwing the arm being crushed in my grip aside, to prevent him from going to his firearm. “I cast fist!” My left hand connected with his face, his nose giving a satisfying crunch as he was knocked through the doorway behind him, landing on his back with a dull thump. 

I honestly hoped the blow had knocked him out, or at the least, taken away his will to continue this, but the moment I began to step forward, he started laughing again, grating on my nerves with his cackling. 

“I’ll have to admit, that was pretty impressive, human-kun,” Freed laughed and laughed, only cementing his complete lack of sanity. “However, you made one fatal error in all this.” Even while slowed, he had managed to pull his gun without me noticing. I raised my left hand, preparing to throw up a defense to the best of my abilities. A second later, behind me, Issei screamed. I did what was probably the stupidest thing I could have done. My head whipped around, seeing Issei on his knees, bleeding from a bullet hole in his leg. 

There wasn’t a gunshot! No indication that a round had been fired at all! Freed took advantage of my distracted state, rushing at me with both weapons at once. I blocked the swipe from his sword, knocking his hand with the gun away from my body. Issei let out another scream of pain, no doubt from another gunshot.

“Your fight is with me, you sadistic stain!” I shouted, trying to keep his attention on me and me alone. I didn’t think it worked, the man still grinning like mad. I needed to disarm him as quickly as possible. Before he actually killed Issei! 

My eyes flicked back, trying to stay aware of where Issei was in relation to myself. That’s what allowed me to see the source of another scream, this time much more feminine in sound. Oh, please, don’t tell me the poor mans wife just came home to see all this. 

“Ah, Asia-chan, such a delightful scream. Is this your first time seeing a corpse?” Freed laughed, taking joy in the small girl’s suffering. And wasn’t Asia the name of the girl Issei met. Oh, hell no, this was becoming a bigger and bigger mess with each passing second. 

But I sure wasn’t going to waste the advantage. Dispelling my lightning claw, I grabbed both his arms, yanking him forward and off balance. 

“What are you trying to do, hug me to death?” the white-haired lunatic taunted, before noticing my head ramming into his skull. This time, his nose didn’t crunch, instead, it sounded like a tomato splattering against the ground. 

We both staggered back, me from the improper headbutt technique, him from the fact his nose was no bleeding profusely. Even in my somewhat dazed state, I could hear clattering against the wooden floor as the gun was dropped, even if it took my brain a few seconds to process what that meant. 

“What is with you and breaking people’s noses?” Freed snarled, clutching his nose, trying to stop the bleeding as best he could. I glared back at him.

“I do not want to hear anything from the man who creams his own robes whenever he murders someone,” I snap back, recasting my lightning claw as I spoke, before raising it so it pointed at his chest. “You are going to drop that sword, right now, and put your hands where I can see them. I’m giving you one final chance to surrender.”

There was an unspoken threat that I left hanging in the air. He stared at me, before he began to laugh as if I had told him the funniest joke he had heard in a long time. 

“Really? They somehow think you managed to kill her? They must be stupider than I thought!” He howled back in laughter, once again showing complete and utter disregard for the fact this still was a fight. But his words did cause me to pause, and I couldn’t stop myself from frowning. How would a member of the Church know that, let alone one that was likely brought here recently?

“So, you’re working for the fallen, then,” I said, hoping to get the insane man to reveal more information. I mean, his words all but confirmed it for me. The only thing anyone believed me to have killed was the fallen angel that had attacked me, and it’s not like many people knew about that, let alone from the Church. 

Which was freaking great. A rouge exorcist with a murder fetish running around and the only ones holding the leash were a group that made it blatantly clear they had no interest in human life. Nothing wrong with that no, not at all. 

Plus, there was the girl involved now. She was working for this psycho, reluctantly or not. Meaning she wasn’t actually from the church. What a mess. I would like to question her after this but Freed still needed to be dealt with first. Issei did say she was harmless, so I hoped his judgment was right. 

I spared Issei a glance out of the corner of my eye, and what I saw surprised me. Asia had a light emerald glow admitting from her hands, holding them over the bloodied parts of his leg. She was healing him? My brain caught on a snag, trying to process what was happening before me. 

“Are you really healing that devil?” Freed sneered, using my moment of distraction to try and dart around me. “Do you have shit for brains?” the light in her hands flickered for a split second as if she was processing the information and it refused to make it’s way through. 

It was enough to snap me out of it, and with a snarl, I kicked at his legs. My foot connected with his shine, knocking him forward as his face ate the carpet. Freed swore on the way down, as I stepped onto his back, pinning him to the ground. His legs flailed, struggling to find some form of leverage to knock me off. 

He tried to push himself up with his strength. Another divide and any attempt at that was squashed like a bug. 

His reverse handed slash was what caught me off guard, the blade of light missing my nose by a hair, the sudden flash blinding me for a moment, causing me to step back from my position, rubbing the light out of my eyes. 

“Get out of my way or die!” I heard Freed bellow, as I tried to pin down the source of the noise. Damnit, I couldn’t let that happen! 

“No!” Asia shouted, but it was Issei was the one who screamed. As my vision returned, what I saw shocked me. Issei had managed to pull himself up, meeting the blade of light with Boosted Gear. Even from where I stood, I could hear the armor being burned away. I couldn’t imagine what I felt like, but Issei was standing, defending the much smaller girl. 

I took advantage, yanking away one of Freed’s arms away from his sword, helping relieve the stain on Issei for a split second. Before my elbow crashed into the side of the lunatic priest’s skull. 

Freed skidded to the side, and when he came to stop, he looked visibly staggered. And this time, his mouth stayed shut. Good. Maybe this time he’d get a concussion. But that appeared to be too much to hope for, as he raised his sword again. I released both lightning claw spells letting lightning arc around my fingers like a long, sharp glove. But before he could make a move, I felt a sudden breeze, as Freed was sent flying across the room. 

“Kiba!” I grinned, recognizing the blond hair anywhere. Thank goodness, the cavalry had finally arrived! I let both spells fizzle out, the priest seeming to be out of the fight for the moment. I didn’t take my eyes off the corner for a moment though. He had already proven extremely resilient, and slippery, even if I hadn’t used any magic against him. 

He gave me a swift nod, acknowledging my presence, as I got the scope of exactly who Rias had brought with her. When she said everyone, she hadn’t been kidding. Akeno and Koneko were present as well, each equally ready to fight. Rias stood over Issei as Asia continued to heal his wounds. I could have sworn she was a bit shocked, if pleased, by what was happening. 

“What happened here?” she turned to me, once she had finished speaking to Issei. What was once concern and compassion had been replaced with rage, radiating off her in waves, though it wasn’t directed at me. 

“We entered, found this,” I pointed at the wall, the body still nailed in place. “I grabbed Issei, tried to escape. He intercepted us before we could leave. I tried to create an opening for Issei to escape. I failed, he shot Issei to get to me, she healed he, then you got here,” I jabbed my finger to the corner were Freed appeared to be unconscious, letting out a sigh out of relief. 

“I see,” Rias nodded, her rage appearing to increase by the second. However, before she could continue, Akeno interrupted. 

“Buchou, there seems to be Fallen Angels heading towards this house!” I scowled. Oh, this just had to keep on escalating. Issei was hurt, even with a healer, and we were stuck indoors. In a suburb. 

Rias’s face reflected my own for a moment before a sigh of frustration leaves her mouth. 

“Akeno, we’ll return to our headquarters. Prepare for teleportation,” she ordered, lowering her hand, letting the energy that was building up die. 

“Yes, Buchou,” Akeno nodded, as energy began to fill the air. Issei’s eyes widened as if realizing the implications of her statement. Before he could say anything, Rias cut him off.

“Yes, she can come along, if that is what she wishes,” I could have sworn Asia’s own eyes grew as well, seemingly shocked by the amount of goodwill coming from a race she was likely raised to hate, even though it felt like it was impossible for her to hate anything. 

“Uh, yes,” she stammered, avoiding eye contact with Rias. “Thank you for your kindness.” Rias nodded, seemingly somewhat pleased about this development. However, beyond the heartwarming display, I was more interested in Akeno’s spellcraft. Teleportation magic was an interest of mine, despite its numerous and inherent risks. Devil’s likely had a way to make it much safer, or it wouldn’t be deployed in the first place. 

Freed had somehow managed to recover during that time, letting out a wordless scream as he charged at us. I raised both my hands, readying a spell to knock him back, but it was Koneko who dealt with the issue. The last thing I saw before we returned to the safety of the clubhouse was Freed barely cutting a coach in half.


	6. Chapter 6

Floorboards creaked as I paced back and forth at the clubhouse. Adrenaline had wormed it’s way out of my system, only for it to be replaced with unease and my own internal panic. Sure, Freed wasn’t going to be in fighting shape any time soon, but the moment he was, he’d likely be out for blood. And I wouldn’t be hard to find, and from there, who knew where his twisted mind would go?

I wanted to shout, scream, and punch something, all at once, but I bit it down. Getting mad and taking it out on people around me wasn’t going to solve the problem. Rias was already beating herself up over the issue, with her own mouth in a slight frown, eyebrows locked together. 

Still, we needed to do something. As far as I was concerned, politics could fly out a window. The Fallen Angels were now leading to attacks on innocent people, and so long as they remained in town, my family, Issei and his family, and Asia were all at risk, alongside anyone summoning devils. 

I was tempted to just march over to that church and put an end to this as swiftly as possible. A single full powered spell would be all it took to leave that place a smoldering crater. 

I took a deep breath, trying quickly to regain control of my emotions. Running off on my own to do something stupid wasn’t going to help either. I stopped my pacing, focusing on my breathing. We had Asia, a girl they clearly wanted for something, two Longinus users, and four powerful and skilled devils, one of which had a Scared Gear in his own right. 

We had a power advantage, and no small one, either. While I doubted they would take us ‘capturing’ Asia, without some form of retaliatory action, in turn, I couldn’t imagine what that might be. I hoped they might just cut their losses, be done with this venture that was clearly costing them. I imagined there would be a point where they simply wouldn’t be able to maintain some form of political excuse. 

Speaking of that, how did this thing with Asia work anyway? From what I understood, she was a member of the Church, then she was working for the Fallen, and now she’s working for us? Did the Fallen blackmail her into this or something? Would we have to hand her back over to the Church? Did her coming with us count as her changing sides? Did she count as a prisoner or something? 

My eyes twitched over to where the girl sat. I had my concerns about how she was holding up. She hadn’t moved much, appearing to be more interested in her feet than making eye contact with anyone besides Issei, including me, the only other human in the room. Well, she wouldn’t keep his eye contact for long either, but she seemed to be using him as some form of a shield, or even a means to comfort herself. 

The silence wasn’t likely to do her any favors either. Surrounded by people she was trained to hate and fear at likely a very young age, and nobody saying anything at all would likely intimidate her even more. I doubted anyone would hurt her, especially now, but she didn’t know that. Even though I could swear, scouts honor, that Akeno was giving the two a weird look that I could barely catch out of the corner of my eye. 

If it wasn’t for the Stray Devil, I wouldn’t be too concerned. Maybe she would tease the two a bit, but that would be the end of it. But given that development, I could only imagine the horrifying things that come from both of them hanging out. 

“So, how are you holding up?” I asked, finally breaking the silence and my thought process before it went into the abyss. Asia let out a small noise of surprise, nearly jolting forward as if struck by lightning. Akeno let out a light chuckle, while Kiba simply smiled, and I could feel the tension beginning to melt away. It was still at the back of my mind, but it was lessened. 

“I’m fine, thank you,” she stammered out, once she got over her surprise. Very polite for someone so young. How old exactly was she, anyway? A rude question, but she didn’t look much older than Kekeno. Then again, given how the white-haired girl was as old as my sister, somehow, appearances could be deceiving. 

The sudden spike in activity managed to bring Rias out of her own thoughts, the redhead letting out a deep sigh. It drew our attention like moths to a flame, everyone in the room focusing in on her. 

“We’ve all had a long day,” she started, and I could almost hear the weight on her voice. And I wasn’t going to disagree with the statement, either, even if there wasn’t school tomorrow. “We will meet up after school to discuss our next move.” 

As much as dividing ourselves was a bad idea, I doubted the enemy would come looking for a fight anytime soon. Asia none withstanding, but what exactly could they do? Pretty sure kidnapping her from them would be another tick on the political box they really couldn’t afford. Besides, it was only for a day, and Issei’s house wasn’t too far. I could escort him home, throw up some more wards, and be now my way. 

What were we going to do with Asia, though? Guest or not, Devil territory or not, I doubted leaving her overnight at the clubhouse was an option. Of course, I wasn’t sure that she trusted anyone here besides Issei either. But seriously, honestly, was that the best idea?

I honestly couldn’t believe I was thinking that it actually was. I don’t think I’d heard him make a single perverted comment around her, let alone about her. He was acting, dare I say it, like a gentleman, if not a big brother to her. Maybe being around her would do him some good. 

The only thing I had in common with her was that I was human. Sure, I may have fought to protect her, in a loose sense, but it was Issei that took a blow meant to kill her. And she truly seemed to like him, her first reaction being to heal him, no questions asked. My eyes flickered between the two from my position behind the coach, hoping that someone would get what I was trying to be subtle about. 

I think Rias did understand my hint as she approached, bending over slightly to bring herself to Asia’s eye level. Or maybe she was thinking the same thing I was. 

“I’m sorry, but right now, we don’t have many places for you to stay. Would you like to come to stay with me?” the blonde seemed to deflate, “Or, would you like to stay with Issei?” 

Any spirit she might have lost has returned tenfold. I was surprised she wasn’t glowing like the sun. Issei seemed a bit surprised, stammering. Akeno simply chuckled, and I shook my head. If nothing else, this was going to be amusing. Parental shenanigans aside, things shouldn’t be too hard here on out. 

I mean, it shouldn’t take too much convincing right? 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

I was a bit surprised that Rias didn’t use the teleporter to bring us into the ballpark of Issei’s house, but as it turns out, taking extra’s along for the ride, especially when they were human, was taxing. It didn’t really make much sense, but we had to go on foot. I was more than a bit paranoid the whole journey, though. 

After what had happened, it felt like it was a bad idea to be out in the open. Maybe not all the adrenaline had left my system yet. Rias was, thankfully much calmer than I was, which helped keep the worst of my panic at bay. I mean, two Longinus wielders and a high-class Devil. Only an idiot would launch an attack against those odds. 

It still didn’t help that I felt like we were being watched. I didn’t know by who, or by what, but it was probably nothing, even if it didn’t feel like it. Things were too quiet, even for this time of night. Even if Rias was using a spell to prevent us from being detected, it still felt wrong. Tactically speaking, our best form of defense for her was secrecy. If they didn’t know where she was, then nothing bad could happen to her. 

We made decent enough time to Issei house, all things considered. I quickly began my work while Rias, Issei, and Asia made their way inside. Sure, it probably wasn’t my best work, but I didn’t have to much time, and the sooner I was out of their yard, the better. Don’t want the neighbor’s asking questions about why there was a strange man creating flying circles in their front yard. 

Did Neighbor’s in Japan even ask questions like that? There was an unspoken rule of politeness, but even that might warrant questions right? I mentally shrugged getting along with my work. It took a good fifteen minutes before I was pleased with my work. Long enough for Rias herself to talk Issei’s parents into letting Asia stay, alongside with offering to escort me home. 

I politely declined. My house wasn’t far away, so I would be home fairly swiftly. As I finished my work, I felt gears beginning to turn in my mind. Idea’s flickered in and out of existence, as I muttered to myself under my breath. 

It could work. Maybe not for devils, but for a human like me, maybe. A very large maybe, and I was certainly out of my field of experience, but on paper it made sense. Practically, well, that would be hard to test, and I might need some books on how light magic actually worked. Because if it worked as regular light did, then there might be a defensive solution after all. 

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When Risa and Sona said they controlled the school, I figured it was indirectly, from the shadows, influencing things, not directly, like somehow making Asia an exchange student overnight. But at this point, I really shouldn’t be too surprised. Still, seeing her at school already was quite a surprise. 

Speaking of which, Asia didn’t look entirely comfortable in the short skirt of the Kouh Academy uniform, but she’d pretty much won over most of the entire school already. My sister had nearly entered a state ripped straight of an old cartoon. The one with the Yeti and the rabbit being called George. Another reason I was happy that she was living with Issei because my sister might freak her out before she got the cuteness out of her system. 

I felt bad for Issei though. The poor man nearly got mobbed by nearly half the school, a rare combination of jealous guys and angry girls. Mercifully, Asia was able to defuse the situation before it required interference. 

Then came the biggest surprise of all. Asia was actually the same age as the two of us. The same year, same room. Ok, the last part wasn’t surprising. She didn’t know any Japanese, while Issei had the power of Language on his side, allowing him to be an extremely effect translator. For me, I could go between Japanese and English fairly well, and English appeared to be a second language for her. 

Remarkably clever. I’d almost say too clever, but then I remember who exactly I’m dealing with here. Still, if it wasn’t for the teachers, things would have been much crazier. I wasn’t entirely sure it was possible to Issei to be disliked by the student body any more than he had been before, but he had accomplished it. Maybe this wasn’t as good of an idea as I thought. Having Asia stick extremely close to him probably wasn’t helping matters, either. Not that she was giving him a choice in that department. 

Well, the last two members of the perverted trio weren’t happy about it, and that was putting things mildly. I was pretty sure I saw them giving Issei some version of a death glare when he wasn’t looking. Jealousy was an ugly thing, but come on, would it kill you to be proud of the guy for finally getting a person potentially romantically interested in him? 

Then there was her. Kiryuu Aika Or as I liked to call her, God's vengeance against guys for the perverted trio existing. Out of everyone, she picked up on Asia’s potential crush the fastest, and if it wasn’t for the language barrier, the former nun would likely be reduced to a blushing trainwreck. 

Today was shaping up to one of complete pandemonium, seeing as we weren’t even halfway through school yet. The only good news was that I had managed to finish getting the spellbooks together to give to their respective owners, and hopefully, I’d be able to get ahold of Sona despite the chaos. 

I’d already begun making sketches for what I wanted to happen. Sure, it was only on paper, and I really had no form of actual research on what I needed to do, which was why I was going to Sona. I’d be surprised if Devil’s hadn’t sunk time into trying to find some form of light protection. If I could get a hold of that research, I might be able to make something that worked for humans. Hopefully. 

Personally, having any degree of high hopes for such a project would be foolish. This was an issue that Devil’s had faced for a very long time, and such information would likely be closely guarded. To hand those notes over to someone, even copies of that data, even if they were working for you, might actually be a bit much. Especially when greater minds had likely worked on such a project. 

Hell, the more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed that Devil’s might not be able to defend themselves against light based attacked because it was their fatal flaw. Magic was tied so deeply to them, that it simply not be possible for them to magically defend against it. On paper, it made sense. But it wasn’t going to be something I said out loud, though. Or wanted to test firsthand. 

Ultimately, I decided that during lunch was the best to time to at least put my request on the table. As much as I didn’t like leaving Issei to the masses, Kiba and Soji should be able to handle things. Things couldn’t get that far out of hand, right?

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“Kaichou?” I asked, knocking on the door to the student council room. Was she even in while school was in season? Maybe I should have thought a bit more about this… 

“Enter,” Sona’s voice broke its way through my thoughts. As stern and no-nonsense as ever. 

I opened the door, entering the decently sized office. It felt a lot less busy without the rest of the student council president, and a whole lot less cramped. Actually, it felt a bit more open, without more than a dozen people running around.

“May I ask you something?” I asked, trying to be polite. Sona simply nodded as I took a seat in one of the small chairs in front of her large desk. She nodded as if to push me forwards.

“Do you have any notes of anti-light defense spells that I might be able to borrow?” I tried to put it as best I could, in a way that wouldn’t likely end up with me being thrown out. 

“Now that is a very strange request,” Sona’s voice was unreadable, as was her facial expression. One of her eyebrows was slightly raised, but that was all. “I must ask why do you want such information.” 

“I had an idea that light magic used by Angels and exorcists works like regular light. Like how light bullets still retain light’s speed, for example. If this is true, then it might be possible refract it by using a prism, breaking it down into something much weaker, like how light inside a prism gets broken down into different colors,” I explained, taking a deep breath at the end to refill my lungs. Sona’s eyes seemed to narrow slightly. 

“That is an interesting idea, yes. However, I must inform you that you aren’t the first to come up with such a plan,” I frowned at what Sona was saying. Of course, someone would have tried that long before I even had the idea. I wasn’t making a massive logical jump. 

“Unless you think it could work for humans,” Sona continued, causing me to jump in surprise. How did she come to that line of conclusion? 

“I mean it’s possible,” I stammered, slightly on edge by her statement. “Human’s don’t have a vulnerability to light, so depending what the spell did, it could be able to protect one.” 

Sona stared at me as if trying to dig her way through my brain. I did my best to make sure my facial expression remained unreadable and I was likely failing, too. 

“I can make no promises about such a thing. In fact, I doubt I will be able to get any information on the project, let alone anything you might find useful,” Sona finally said, much to my relief. “But I will do everything in my power to do.”

“Thank you,” I bowed slightly. Sure it was more of me tipping my head, but it was the thought that counted. “That means a lot to me.” Sure, it was by no means a guarantee, and it wasn’t going to be coming anytime soon, but it was better than nothing. I was honestly expecting to be turned down, I wasn’t going to lie. 

“Before you go,” Sona spoke up as I made my way toward the door. My head whipped around, back to the desk. “I’d like to take a look at the spellbook you brought. Oh, right, might as well do that while I was here. No sense in pushing that off till later in the day. 

I reached into my backpack, pulling out a copy of the notebook, placing it down gently on the desk, before booking it. I had to hurry before I went today without lunch!

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Sona watched as James left, tempted to warn him about running in the halls. She looked down at the notebook, somewhat disappointed. Isolated indeed, if he didn’t know about the variety of magical stores throughout town. It would be well if she informed him, but that would have to wait. 

Sona had no shame admitting she was extremely curious on the subject of James. The boy had extremely high magical potential. But she could hardly detect any of it, and it was the same with Rias. Something was suppressing it, and it was hard to pinpoint what. While his wards were impressive, and could somewhat disrupt magic and make it harder to detect, it couldn’t be the solution. 

That was part of the reason she wanted to see his spells and what they could do. He had already proven to be creative, if not close to borderline ingenious, with Lightning Mine being creation no novice had the ability to pull off. In fact, spellcrafting for someone so limited would be dangerous. 

Even the most simple of spells had nearly a page dedicated to it, each complete in detail that surprised her. It looked less like a magician who’d just started and more like an actual spellbook, or even some form of scientific paper. And he admitted beforehand that he cut out much of his own personal thoughts and theories. 

It was put together with a level of professionalism that surprised her, given James’s attitude. Sure, more than a few spells were simply him reinventing the wheel, but even those spells had something different about them compared to their more common variations. Others were original, to her knowledge, while some were pretty much intentionally modified versions of already existing spells. 

Still, it didn’t give her the information she wanted. She’d have to experiment later with a few of his wards and illusions, but none of them seemed like they’d be accomplishing what she was seeing. Or there was something else going on. James wasn’t the best liar, so she doubted it was something even he was aware. Then there was a simple fact that his own spellbook drove home. James had a combination of talent and potential that would be considered one in a million, and that was if he came from a family of mages. 

His parent’s had to know more than they were letting on. But that didn’t make sense either. All records she could dig up showed the same thing. Regular humans leading regular human lives. The fact there was anything to find was surprising enough. It wouldn’t be impossible for James to be the lucky offshoot of two individuals from mage families that didn’t have any potential. 

Sona’s frown grew at a troubling thought. Regular humans wouldn’t have anything to find in any Devil data banks. Politicians and other important figures, sure, but two relatively unknown individuals wouldn’t have had anything worthy of note. So why would there be space allotted to two regular humans in the first place?

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The rest of the day went by swiftly enough. Things had calmed down after lunch a little bit. If this were an American High School, everything would have been worse. One of the strange differences I never quite understood but was never the less now extremely grateful for, was that we didn’t move around to different classes, but rather, the teachers came to us. 

Guarding Issei between classes before getting to my own would have been a massive pain, and depending on classroom placement, impossible. Though I had to admit I was slightly disappointed about not being able to fight my way through a crowd of people with a trombone, but I digress.

It took a few minutes for Kiba and me to pull them away from the crowd. If I found out the poor girl already had a fan club, I wouldn’t be too surprised. Same if Issei voodoo dolls started popping up. Now that I thought about it, I should probably keep an eye out for that. This being a Devil owned town and all that, someone might actually find something to help make one, and while I personally knew nothing about how to use such magic, I’d gotten my hands on enough stories to know that it wouldn’t be good. 

I might have a book on it somewhere. But that was a future project, and a major what if. 

“So, Asia, how was your day?” Kiba’s voice broke me out of my thoughts as we made our way to the clubhouse. My eyes flicked around me, during my head slightly to make sure we weren’t being followed. I suppose I was still being a bit paranoid, but I wasn’t taking chances. 

“It was nice. A bit stressful, but nice,” Asia seemed in a much brighter mood, compared to yesterday. She smiled lightly, a very genuine smile that could cause even a grown man to break down and weep. Was this how she normally was? A bright and happy ball of sunshine?

Because looking at her right now was stabbing me in my big brother instinct place. The part of the brain that goes ‘oh, so you made my younger sibling cry? Ok, then I’ll punch you in the face’. 

Kiba looked at the two of us, with Asia quickly following his gaze. 

“The usual for me, for the most part,” I lied. If Asia hadn’t picked up on it, I certainly wasn’t going to be the one to point out the near murderous crowds. 

“It was nice,” Issei rubbed the back of his head. The smile of glee on Asia’s face made me feel bad about lying to her almost immediately, but I pushed down the feeling. Didn’t need to add anything else to the amount of stress she likely had going on. Most certainly any Issei related stress. 

We were the first to make it into the clubhouse, and I finally started to relax. How strange it was. Never thought I’d feel that this place was some form of safe house, at least compared to my own home. I’d rather be there, but still, the fact I was beginning to feel safe around Devils was a bit of a concerning thought. 

I frowned, as my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I wasn’t expecting any calls. My frown only grew as I saw the name on the screen. Oh, I already had a feeling where this was going. Part of me was tempted to ignore it, but then again, she wasn’t likely to stop until she got what she wanted. 

“Sorry, but I’m going to have to step out and take this,” I said, stepping out of the room and into the hall. “Hello,” I spoke into the speaker, moving away from the door to discourage eavesdropping. 

What I got was a bunch of English gibberish as Lily spoke about a mile a minute. I even pulled my phone away from my ear slightly due to the volume. 

“Can you repeat that one more time. Slower. So I can understand you,” I muttered, already not assumed. Oh, this was going to leave me with the urge to punch something. That much was certain. 

“Is it true that Asia and Issei have been having,” the sound of my hand hitting my forehead cut her off as I groaned. Oh, those rumors didn’t take long to start spreading. And I wouldn’t be surprised if I knew the source, too. 

“No. I can tell you with certainty that isn’t true,” I groaned out, shaking my head with annoyance. If Issei wasn’t dense and Asia not shy, that may end up being that way, but I doubt it. Issei, for all his talk of Harem’s, was out of his depth. He had no idea how to respond to Asia’s attachment to him, while Asia didn’t seem to have much of an idea on how to convey her own feelings. 

I’m guessing being a nun didn’t leave her with a whole lot of romantic exposure period, let alone how to deal with or display such emotions. Then again, I could be reading a bit too far into this. 

Still, I almost chuckled at the realization that my sister was possibly jealous of Issei here. Well, there’s a thought that I never believed would exist. Then again, I don’t think many people would be thinking that anyway. But today kind of threw what was considered normal into a tailspin. Everything would calm down, eventually. At least, it better calm down. 

“Look, I don’t think Issei actually understands when a girl is crushing on him, and Asia isn’t past the making eye contact with crush before averting her gaze yet. I doubt it’ll get that far in the future,” that, and a few other reasons. 

“Fine,” I could tell my sister was puffing up her checks, trying to make a fuss over nothing. I didn’t want to laugh at her suffering over this, but I couldn’t deny it was funny. I’d imagine Rias would be amused by this whole thing as well. 

“I’ll talk to you later, once we’re done here,” I said. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long to formulate a plan. I’d much rather not be too late, again. While it wasn’t too much, I could already tell my sleep pattern was already being knocked out of alignment. And ideally, that plan wasn’t to continue doing nothing. 

“Alright, I will talk to you later, then,” Lily sighed on the other end of the line. I don’t think it was her being lonely, but certainly, hope it wasn’t. Maybe something else? I’d have to talk to her about it at some other point. “Bye.”

She hung up. I felt a bit of a frown grow on my face. That was strange. We usually go through the, ‘I love you’, ‘I love you too’, routine. For her to hang up like that was weird. I made a quick mental note to try and get her to talk about it later. 

Koneko had entered the room apparently while I wasn’t looking. I really hope she didn’t hear anything about my conversation. She didn’t seem to respond, so I didn’t think so, by trying to read the white hair girl was like trying to read a brick wall. Impossible, and you made yourself look stupid when you tried. 

Akeno was next, and without Rias, a bit of a surprise. 

“Buchou will be here soon,” she said, after closing the door “she had something she wanted to discuss with Kaichou.” I frowned. Was it about what I had asked for? Or maybe there was something wrong with the spellbook I’d given her. Oh, I hoped not. Certainly, it couldn’t be that. I double checked everything I could think of. Sure, a notebook was unorthodox, but surely, it couldn’t cause that much trouble, right? 

My spine began to freeze up as I realized Akeno was staring at me. It only took me a few seconds to realize what she wanted. I quickly dug into my backpack, pulling out the third spiral notebook, handing it over quickly. 

“Thank you,” she smiled politely, though that did little to dispel my unease. 

“You’re welcome,” I nodded in return, doing my best to keep any sign of fear from showing. If anyone could smell it, it would be her. Her little chuckles as she sat down in one of the nearby chairs didn’t help. Well, I may or may not have just had a hand in ending the world, good job. 

Ok, I was probably overreacting, but after the Stray Devil incident, I didn’t think I could blame myself. The amount of glee she took when torturing it disturbed me. Given how we both appeared to use lightning magic as our primary means of attack, I was more than aware of what lightning could do to a person. There was a good reason why I had spells made for incapacitating. 

Lightning could kill, and even my weaker and arguably, safer spells, probably weren’t as safe as I’d like to think they were. But on the other side of that same coin, it was typically easy to incapacitate with it. Static was ideal for this, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Akeno used it for other purposes.

“What was that?” Asia asked suddenly, taking me by surprise. Her eyes seemed a bit wide with wonder as if she hadn’t seen anything like that before. 

“It’s a spellbook,” I rubbed the back of my head as Kiba chuckled in his own seat. I don’t know what he found so funny. 

“Sure doesn’t look like one,” Issei teased, and I chuckled, laughing at my own lack of traditionalism, and also to cover some of my embarrassment. I mean, if I could find a place that sold blank spellbook’s I would have found them already. Besides, it wasn’t like hadn’t put protective enchantments on them. There wasn’t going to be any difference in durability and longevity between the two, I made sure of it. 

“You know me, always the guy who doesn’t do things traditionally,” I grin slightly, still trying to cover for myself. I doubted it was working at the end of the day, but everyone was having a chuckle. Well, besides Koneko, something that should surprise no one.

I kind of enjoyed it. After the events of last night, the normalcy was nice. It wouldn’t last, sure. I knew deep down what was going to be discussed today, it would not be about Devil work, contracts, or even training. The moment Rias stepped into the room, it would be time to talk about war. 

And indeed we did. 

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Issei and Asia were on the verge of checking out a while ago, seemingly fluttering between the waking world and the dreaming world. It was cute, I don’t think anyone of us could deny it. But we were focusing on the information Asia had given us. It took me swearing that we would try to avoid killing anyone for her to actually start talking. 

She was compassionate enough to defend people who clearly didn’t deserve it, and while I don’t think Rias really liked it, it did give us the information we needed. 

The old church on the outside of town was their base of operations, confirming what we had already expected, with three Fallen Angels, one of which likely tried killing Issei. Combined with maybe a half dozen fallen exorcists, and the enemy force was larger than I expected. If Sona’s peerage was also coming with us, we’d easily have them outnumbered, but the way they were planning, that didn’t seem like it would be the case. 

Without the church, this would have been an easy fight. However, the presence of holy ground changed things. Well, not for me, but certainly everyone else. We couldn’t just keep playing defensively, but at the same time, attacking carried a wide range of risks. 

Weakening the power of Devil’s and having weapons that could easily kill was not something we could overlook. If we could remove that advantage, or force them away from it, much of the risk would be negated. Easier said than done, though. Any force would be reluctant to give up an advantageous position. I frowned, trying to make a mental image in my mind. 

They had two separate groups. Three fliers, while everything else was ground based with ranged capacity. Maybe some form of aerial attack? No, that simply wouldn’t work, and splitting any of ourselves up was a terrible idea. We were the ones outnumbered, so we would need to stick together. 

But being in the air would at least be useful. We could use that to divide the enemy force into two separate chunks, each more manageable than they would be together. Maybe using magic to bombard the place from above? Actually, that just might work. We had the firepower, between Akeno, Rias and myself, to accomplish such a task, and it would force them to give up their advantageous position. We could even batter our way through whatever defenses they put up if they even bothered with such a thing. 

Then, once the Fallen were out of the way, we could clean out the rouge exorcists with little issue. Ideally, take Freed prisoner while we were at it. He belonged in a jail cell if nothing else.

“I have an idea,” I raised my hand tenitivaly, earning Rias’s attention, seeing how this was the first time I’d spoken since the meeting began. She tentatively nodded, a sign I took to continue. 

“Instead of striking on land, how about we launch an aerial attack? Bombard the place from above, to try and draw out the Fallen Angels to engage us without backup from the exorcists. Even if they don’t try to attack us, the bombardment should remove the church as a factor and soften them up considerably. It’s a win-win,” I explained, grinning slightly. Rias seemed to be lost in thought, contemplating what I’d just said. 

“It could work, but we need a make sure the rest of the town doesn’t notice, as well as the church remaining mostly intact,” Rias said, as I resisted the urge to smack my face. Of course, how could I forget that! Outskirts or no, everyone is going to notice lightning suddenly decided that a church didn’t need to exist anymore. Illusions could work, but I had nothing to cover anything so obvious. 

“Illusions could work, but they would take a bit of power to be maintained. We could always use magic to repair the church once we are finished,” Kiba offered, and I nodded his direction in thanks. But was it just me, or did the last part seem a bit tense? Rias herself nodded as well. 

“That would be worth the discussion. Once everyone is awake, that is,” I looked for too the couch to find both Issei and Asia finally out for the count. Koneko looked like she was about to clock out as well.


	7. Chapter 7

I had to admit, while I didn’t find Issei the be the mental image of a model student, I’d never once think I’d see him skip class like this. With Asia in tow, no less. I hadn’t seen either of them so far today, and given how it was lunchtime, it was safe to assume the two wouldn’t be showing. 

Surely, something bad couldn’t have happened. Rais was keeping an eye on things, and I would have been informed otherwise. So what was keeping the two of them? I wasn’t going to hand over my notes, which were mostly in English in the first place, without a good reason for why they were skipping. 

Though, I doubted the rumor mill’s take on the situation, which was already going exactly how one might expect. Firstly, didn’t people have better things to do with their time? Secondly, why was what two people may or may not be doing any of their business? If it wasn’t for the fact any attempt to slow the wildfire would be like trying to stop a tidal wave with a bucket, or worse, dropping napalm on it, I would have tried to put a stop to it. 

Well, if I did find out the source was who I suspected it was. Well, Issei’s friendship with them wasn’t going to be enough to save them, but I digress. There was probably a reason why they weren’t here and Rias would tell me later. 

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By the time class had ended we were still missing the two. Rias, seemed somewhat happy, while everyone else didn’t seem surprised about the two’s absence at all. That was reassuring if only a little bit.

“So,” I started, somewhat unsure of how to put it, “do you know where our absentees are?” It wasn’t Rias that answered, but Akeno. 

“Yes,” the black-haired devil had a look on her face that was concerning enough in its own right. “It seems Issei has taken Asia out on a date.” I could have sworn I heard Koneko mutter something under her breath as Kiba and I locked eyes from across the room, him giving me a reassuring nod. 

“A romantic date, or friends ditching school for a day date?” I was not expecting that answer I had been given. Yeah, Asia liked Issei, that was about as clear as day. But as far as I could tell, Issei didn’t know this. He could be trying to cheer her up while she took it as a sign of romantic interest. Well, wasn’t that just a mess. 

“It seems more of the latter rather than the former,” Rias spoke, nodding to herself. “I don’t entirely approve of him skipping class for this, but she seems to be much happier than she has been since she entered our care.” I don’t know how much that was saying though. Asia seemed happy most of the time anyway, all things aside. Maybe she just needed a day where she could hang around her crush like a regular teenage girl. It probably wasn’t something she ever got to do, to be honest. 

Plus, I would not deny that it could be a good influence on Issei. Maybe get his mind out the preverbal gutter, so to speak. Still, I wasn’t going to pity the world of hurt he was going to be in tomorrow, if only because of the rumor mill. 

“I’ll have my familiar keep an eye on them in the meantime,” Rias continued, looking at each of us, “For now, let's continue where we left off.” The redhead looked towards me as if to ask to explain the logic behind my idea. 

“The enemy has three advantages over us. Numbers. Home field advantage. Lastly and most dangerously, Holy Ground. All of these treats, one way or another adds a force multiplier against us. These advantages must be either accounted for or removed from the enemy's possession entirely,” I paused for air, before continuing to speak. “By using magic to strike from above the church, we eliminate their numbers advantage, can destroy the advantage of holy ground, and turn their advantageous position against them. Minimal risk, maximum reward.” 

I took a step back, conceding the floor back to Rias, as the crimson-haired devil nodded. 

“James’s idea, lacking subtly, is correct. This creates a situation that minimizes the danger everyone here will be exposed to,” Rias eyes went across every single member of her peerage. It was nice, seeing that level of concern from her. “Seeing how this is an attack against a group that is a danger to both any devil and human in this town, I’d rather not see any of you getting hurt. Before engagement, we will need an illusion to mask our attack from the rest of town.”

“Akeno and I will handle that part of the plan. Once the illusion is up, James, you have permission to engage until we join you. Koneko and Kiba, try to keep him as safe as possible,” she continued. I did want to chuckle at that. A human mage I maybe, but I wasn’t that soft and squishy. I was more than capable of handling myself in a fistfight if needed to be, what happened two days ago should have been enough to prove that much. 

But I would be hard-pressed to think I was better than those two. Kiba’s speed was a terrifying thing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Koneko could ignore attacks that would leave me dead. Rook durability and knight speed. Fun stuff, I had to admit. 

“Ideally, the fallen will try to counterattack right away, and we can catch them between us. Without the Holy Ground weakening us, it should be a much easier task,” so I was also the bait. It’s not like the fallen angels had proven too much of a threat thus far. With the fight ranging from a three vs three to a five vs three, things were looking in our favor on that front. 

Rias opened her mouth as if to speak, but froze for a few seconds. 

“James, stay put, everyone else with me!” her order took me by surprise. Something had happened, and whatever it was, it wasn’t good. It was already getting close to the hours of dusk. Wait, dusk? Oh, no, please don’t tell me they had been attacked. 

I stayed put with reluctance, grinding my teeth. I get why Rias ordered me to stay back and out, devil’s using their powers to teleport humans caused a much greater drain on them, I was only the one that didn’t have a direct vulnerability to light power. 

They weren’t gone long, maybe a second or two while I looked for some form of first aid kit, preparing for the worst. Issei was the first I noticed, a clear burn mark through his shoulder, leaking blood. Kiba was keeping the brunette on his feet, helping him along. I did a quick mental count. Kiba, Issei, Rias, Koneko, and Akeno. That left one missing.

“Where’s Asia?” it was a question I probably could guess the answer too already, I just didn’t want to acknowledge the possibility. Rias looked down, confirming any suspicions I had without a shadow of a doubt. Damnit! 

I took a deep breath in, attempting to calm my nerves. Ok, one problem at a time. First, Issei’s bleeding. I struggled to remember anything of use in this situation. My mom was a nurse! But I don’t think she dealt in puncture wounds like this. 

“James,” Rias’s voice was stern, and I could feel something rolling off her. She was mad, really mad. “Head home and prepare yourself. We will be attacking at seven, understand.” I watch Issei grit his teeth, nodding in agreement despite the pain he was in. It didn’t seem like any of them were going to let this stand.

“Yes Ma’am,” I stammered, taken off-guard by the sudden change in mood. I was almost scared of her like she was about to murder something at any second.

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“Bandages, check,” I muttered to myself, packing a small bag of medical supplies to bring along. “Disinfectant, double-check, phone in a proper durable case, double-check.” I was leaving with a good forty-five minutes to spare, so and my emergency bag was ready. 

I wasn’t going into this without some form of proper preparation. My plan had already thrown out the window, that was clear the moment Asia was kidnapped. So I assumed the plan was to bust down the door, kick-ass, and chew bubble gum. 

And we had gone past the point of being out of gum. To say I was happy about the current situation was an understatement, and very wrong. I get it, there is a reaction window and I couldn’t expect them to be there to protect my family immediately, but this was affecting my confidence on that front. The sooner these Fallen Angels were out of Kouh and away from my family, the better off I’d be. Maybe throwing them out the door with a boot-up their rear end would make sure they got the picture. 

The small bag of supplies slipped from my grasp. Why now, of all times? I didn’t even jinx it, so why were the wards acting up? It was like they were getting hit by something. Pulling my phone from the case, inching my way towards the window, taking a peek through the curtains. 

Well, this was just great. Three, no four, probably more, Fallen Angels were circling the house. I frowned, looking at the time on the screen. I still had time, but it would be for them if I just informed Rias now.

I pushed the contacts, and let the phone ring, as I moved away from the outer wall and the window. All my defensive spells were holding, but it was better to be safe than sorry. 

“Yes?” Rias’s voice came over the line, seemingly surprised.

“Rias, if I’m not near the rondeau point in time, start without me. I’ll join you when I’m able, but right now I’ll be busy,” I said, slowly making my way towards the door. Once I was done talking to Rias, I was going to call Sona, and ask her to bring in the cavalry. Maybe there would be enough to clean up once she got here. 

“What do you… Oh,” it didn’t take long for her to figure it out, but I cut her off before she could say anything else. She was going to offer reinforcements, ones we couldn’t spare.

“Rias, I can handle myself in a fight. Asia can’t. She is the priority in this situation. I’ll contact Sona as soon as I can,” I stated firmly as possible, trying to make my point clear. This was my home, and my family was here. I wasn't going to let those winged stains harm them. 

The line cut dead before Rias could say anything, calling apart into static. A spell that could jam electronics? I would be impressed if it wasn’t for the current situation. Right now, I was only pissed off. 

“What’s going on out there?” it was my sister, coming down the stairs in leaps and bounds. She’d finally felt the assault as well. 

“Stay inside,” I ordered, tossing my phone her way, which she managed to catch. “Call Sona the moment the phone stops giving you static.” Then, I opened the door, as if the house wasn’t under attack in the first place. 

Eight was the number I could see, and they all looked surprised to see me walk out of the house, seemingly without a care. Divine Dividings' wings carried me upward, almost in a lazy, uncaring manner. Outside, I was as calm as could be. Inside, I was pissed. Once I reached a height, slightly above my roof, still within the wards surrounding the house, I spoke.

“I’m giving you one chance to leave peacefully. Leave town, and get out of Devil Territory before I and the ones who rule this place kick you out. Or kill you, or whatever other foul things they have in store for you,” I ground out, letting my anger become known. One, I could see acting on their own. This meant something had come from the top. 

“We aren’t here to fight!” one of the Fallen shouted, the one hovering closest to the house. “Just hand over the girl and we’ll be out of your.” Whatever he was trying to say was cut off by a scream of pain. Lightning coursed through his body, sending him spiraling towards the ground, landing with a satisfying crunch. The fall for a human would have been lethal at that height, and while I didn’t know about a Fallen Angel, at that moment. I. Did. Not. Care! 

The sheer thought. They wanted to kidnap my sister! Any sense of restraint was gone. 

“Balance BREAKER!” I let my power run wild, radiating off me in waves. They wanted to fight me! They wanted to steal what I had protected! I’d take them all on! If they didn’t understand my first warning, maybe putting these down would get the point across! 

My first punch connected before they could even react, tearing off the nearest fallen’s arm. I grabbed the limb out of the air before it could begin to fall, smashing him over the back of the head with it, before tossing it aside. I watched them, watching the fear on their faces, as they struggled to realize what had happened. 

Two more fell from the sky, lightning arcing from my hands, leaving scorched flesh and fried wings. Four spears of light were thrown through the sky, each missing me as a weaved through them, towards my target, the Fallen Angel hanging above the fight. Likely the one jamming the phone lines or something. 

Even as angry as I was, I knew I wasn’t being subtle, and that there was likely some form of protocol for when the cat got out of the bag. So unless they did something, the cat was going to be very much out of the bag. But I wasn’t in the mood to care. My fist connected with the Fallen’s rib cage, knocking him back through the air. 

Strange. He wasn’t unconscious yet. Good. Maybe they brought something that could be a decent challenge after all. His head shook as if I had broken his concentration. Good, that meant my theory was correct after all. I shot past him, wrapping the armor than hung from my back around his neck. He didn’t seem to notice until my moment began pulling him along, robbing him of the air he needed to breathe. 

I stopped mid-air, turning around, allowing momentum the Fallen had built up as I struck with an uppercut to his face. Again, bones didn’t crack, or at least, none that I could hear. So, this one was harder than the others. Maybe I should have focused on the small fry first, before going after the big guy.

No matter. Lightning answered my call, twin bolts forcing my opponent towards the ground.

“Divide,” I muttered beneath my breath, only for my amusement. If I wished, I could have reduced his strength so he was unable to breathe and his heart unable to beat. There was much I could have done to make him suffer, but there was no need to be too cruel. 

Dirt and grass exploded forth as I finally forced the Fallen Angel to land. I then crashed into his body like a meteorite, breaking through his weakened guard. This time, bones cracked, satisfying to my ears. Four light spears clattered against the dragon scale I was wearing, each one shattering on impact. 

The split second my eyes were turning to trace the ones that had dared to attack me, the Fallen Angel bellow me to thrust with a light spear aimed at my chest. It did nothing, but it didn’t shatter either. I looked down, my expression hidden behind my helmet, as I brought both my fists down, leading to another eruption of dirt and grass. 

I rose from the cloud, scraping off some of the dirt that landed on my shoulder with little more than a flick. I glared at the final four remaining. Two of them had taken their eyes off me, focusing on something else bellow, one of them bleeding from a few puncture marks. I frowned. Hadn’t I told her to stay inside and let me handle this? Each shot was going wide, and it was clear to tell why. She was using her Sacred Gear and she let them figure out what it did. 

But seeing that they likely knew, letting them leave wasn’t going to happen. Assuming this entire group didn’t know in the first place, but that wasn’t going to change the outcome. Who would the Devil’s trust, an ally who was working for them, or a Fallen Angel trying to soy discord? Her Sacred Gear would remain a secret, and she would remain out of this, even if I could not! 

I blitzed the two not focusing on me, grabbing the one of the left, swinging him around like a club. Both tumbled out of the air, limbs tangling together, allowing me to fry them both with a simple spell. Then, I turned to face the last two, hovering with looks of panic on their faces. 

They could not outrun me, they could not outfight me. I was better than them in every single way. Their choices were to surrender, stand, and be taken prisoner, or run, and be taken, prisoner. 

Crack! The sound took me by surprise, as one of the Fallen suddenly fell out of the air, only to be kept from crashing into the ground by someone grabbing their arm. The other suddenly found herself held aloft by a bubble of water, pinning her wings and arms to her side.

“Baker.” Sona’s voice sounded somewhat harsh. “Your sister has a very interesting definition of you being in trouble.” 

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“So that’s what I was doing last night,” I finished explaining to Issei and Asia. Issei was aware of my detainment, but not all the details connected to it. Though I hadn’t told them everything. Asia was simply too kind-hearted to keep a secret from anyone, and Issei, was, well, Issei. 

Though to say I was the only one of us that had a bad night was a blatant lie. Asia had her Sacred Gear torn from her body, which was why she was the newest member of Rais’s peerage. I found myself looking the girl over, seeing if I could spot any differences in her personality, only to find that no such thing existed. Asia was Asia, whether she was a Devil or not was irrelevant. 

And though Asia was the worst off out of us, Issei watched her die in his arms, and then fought the Fallen Angel that killed him the first time. While Boosted Gear made such a fight easy, it only added to Issei’s emotional scars. Most of the Fallen Angels at the church were killed, alongside most of the exorcists, though Freed had escaped in the aftermath, hopefully, out of town. Without magical equipment or the blessing provided by the Fallen, he was just another sociopath, dangerous, but not entirely our field of operation. 

“Sona-senpai is a Devil?” I heard Asia mutter under her breath. Her now near-perfect Japanese surprised everyone, and given how there could be no logical explanation otherwise, Issei was declared the source. The Rumor mill had let up somewhat on that front, but I was going to keep an ear to the ground just in case. 

“I’m surprised you didn’t get in trouble for something like that,” Issei grinned slightly, as I groaned. It was nice treating this as a normal thing, not like we just were fighting for our lives last night. 

“Well, about that,” I rubbed my head awkwardly. 

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“Given the circumstances and recent events, I can’t entirely blame you for your reaction, excessive as it may be,” Sona’s face was once again unreadable, a situation not helped by my nerves in the slightest. “I’m even willing to admit that the problem should be been dealt with sooner before it could get to that point. However, if it wasn’t for the fact the Grigori hadn’t declared this group and the one at the church rogue elements, then we could be in extreme diplomatic trouble.” 

“I understand Kaichou,” I nodded. I honestly did understand that my actions could have gone wrong, but that didn’t change they were trying to kidnap my family. My sister. I would make the same choice in a heartbeat. 

“Normally, I would discipline you for this, however, I have word from your parents on what they plan to do with you, and I believe it is sufficient enough,” I shuttered. Naturally, after the lightning and fisticuffs combination, the yard was a mess. More like a swarm of small meteorites had impacted all over the place than anything else. 

And yeah, while an illusion stopped people from asking questions, that didn’t change what it looked like. And while my parents did understand what I did, and why I did it, they were still a little bit pissed off about the whole thing. As a result, my punishment was to clear up after myself. Without magic. 

I would have to fill in the holes, by hand, lay down new seeds, and then care for it until it had finished growing. And I was forbidden from using electronic devices outside of schoolwork for the next week. A bit of a pain, but I should count my blessing that Sona didn’t decide to add to it. Thank goodness for small mercies, and I certainly wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

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“That sounds rough,” Issei commented, “Are you sure you don’t want help with that?” 

“No,” I chuckled to myself. “It’s my punishment and I’ll deal with it. But thank you for your offer.” I smiled a bit. I hadn’t expected Issei to offer to do something like that, but it was a pleasant surprise. 

“Besides, all I want for the time being is some peace and relaxation from the chaos,” I laughed somewhat at my joke, though Issei seemed to understand what I was saying, nodding his head. Meanwhile, Asia looked between the two of us, puzzled. 

“You mean it isn’t always like this?”

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“Kaichou, may I speak with you?” a voice echoed through the door of the Student Council’s room. 

“Come in,” Sona said, as the door creaked open. She wasn’t surprised by the person she saw. She was more surprised about how late in the day it was, but she knew Baker, Lily would make her way to the Student Council. She had interrogated a few of them before the Grigori had arrived to take them away for punishment, something neither her or James liked, but that decision was outside of her grasp. 

They had no place to keep them, and even if they did, they weren’t important enough to be worth the effort. If he had killed them outright, which she was a bit surprised he hadn’t done so, then there wouldn’t be much discussion. 

But two of them claimed to have seen the girl herself use magic, in the form of the lightning bow of sorts. This contradicted what James had said about nobody else in his family has magical talents, but she was beginning to suspect he was lying. His parents might be simply because he didn’t know. But with his sister not knowing, he was lying intentionally. Especially since lightning was one of his preferred method of attack. It wouldn’t be a stretch to guess that he made a spell for her use. 

Then there was the second part of their claim, and if true, it only made James' actions being more understandable. If they were to be believed, then Lily Baker possessed a Sacred Gear that had the power to see the future. Such Sacred Gears were extremely rare and were considered borderline Longinus across the border, with only a single exception. 

To have even the weakest of them on your side was a massive boon, and some would be willing to anger even a full Longinus Sacred Gear user to acquire one. It might earn one's loyalty, if only reluctantly through threats and blackmail. If the latter was true, then it would go quite a ways in explaining why James never mentioned his younger sibling’s potential. And why he would jump to the conclusion that they had come for his family. 

Sona did understand part of it. James was content to stay out of the magical world and likely would have done so if it wasn’t for the Fallen Angels. As such, he wouldn’t tell them if he knew anyone else that could use magic because he didn’t want to be part of the magical world. Nor did he want his family to be involved. 

James was being protective, much in a similar way that she and Rais’s older siblings were. But was that what Lily wanted? 

Well, hopefully, she could shed some light on the matter. Perhaps not. But Sona could tell that younger Baker sibling was nervous. Given last night was likely the first experience she had with the magical world, this was understandable. 

“I hope you weren’t too hard on my brother. He was only trying to protect us,” Lily looked down at her feet, shifting nervously. 

“Given the circumstances, I believe your parent's punishment was more than adequate,” Sona watched as the girl sighed, tension leaving her body. “Is that all?” 

“Ah, not entirely,” she started looking back to her feet again. This was very strange to her. Sona knew the up and coming star of the archery team was normally quite calm, but she was extremely nervous, and it wasn’t just because of her brother. 

“You know how my brother has a Sacred Gear, right?” Sona nodded, hoping to encourage the girl to go on. “Well, I have one too. Can you…?” She watched as Lily’s eyes became more snake-like for a second before they flashed back to normal. 

“How do you already know?”

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This chapter changed a lot from what I originally had in mind. My original plan involved James joining the Assault on the Church, with him holding off Freed, allowing for the Issei, Kiba, and Koneko to skip ahead. This meant the ritual with Asia was interrupted, rather than completed, due to them not wasting time against Freed. The Fallen outside the church would have taken longer to clean up because Mittelt wasn’t there to push Rias’s buttons, which would have resulted in them playing with their food a bit. 

However, seeing as the ritual was interrupted halfway through, Twilight Healing would be half in, half out, which would be causing Asia a lot of pain. James would have had Issei and Kiba get her to the nearest hospital in the meantime (hint, the closest was the one James’s mom works at), where I would have revealed something I’ve been sitting on since Chapter 1 (in fact, I cut part of chapter 1 out simply for this reveal), and given more hints on future plot points. Asia would likely still become a Devil, mostly due to her options being either that or her life being nothing but physical pain, which some might consider worse than death. 

Instead, the events at the Church pretty much go down as things did in canon. Issei has a slightly easier time, but that’s about it. I decided to have Lily reveal her future sight to Sona earlier than I intended. *Looks quickly at original plans*, much, much earlier


End file.
